This week I facilitated an event for eGroup.org.au members, the main Western Australian group representing Internet entrepreneurs.

The thrust of the evening was training on Lean Startup principals created by Eric Ries and Steve Blank. We can learn from a book or we can learn by doing. Rather than make this a lecture I decided to turn this into an experience.

The structure of the evening was split into an intial Brainstorming session in teams, generating as many new business ideas as possible. To put an edge on it the teams were to pitch their two best ideas to the larger group. It such a total success with everyone having a ball and some brilliant ideas pitched. Individuls then voted on the best pitches and then formed into teams to work on these business ideas.

The teams then used the Lean Canvas to flesh out the detailed business model for each idea, again pitching to the group at the conclusion.

There were about 30 Internet entrepreneurs taking part and the feedback was that people loved it. I am certainly a fan of the Lean Startup principals. I recall seeing a presentation in Palo Alto or Mountain View in 2009 on this very subject and wonder if it was Eric Ries. I felt at the time that it was one of the most important ideas I had learned from Silicon Valley.

Here is the advertisement to the eGroup.org.au

Entrepreneurs aspire to be SERIAL entrepreneurs.

This months eGroup is an opportunity to stretch outside your normal thinking framework and experience the power of group thinking processes which you can then apply in your own business.

We have picked a set of the best idea generators used by start-up entrepreneurs and will working together in groups to develop a series of never-seen-before online business concepts, which we’ll build into mashups and then turn these into robust business models. What is more the process will be compressed into just a 120 minute experience.