FourSquare Day may be the ultimate grass roots event. Started here in Tampa by a local eye-trepreneur NateBW and fueled by the passion and creativity of local freelancers and techies, this flash-mob on steroids is now a global rally point for the social media crowd and merchants looking to harness the power of mobility.

To show support for this event and it”s mission, IdeaField is hosting an afternoon of open coworking for anyone who wants to stop by on the way to the main event at the Tampa Hyatt. So sign in to FourSquare, add a ToDo for Friday 4/16 from 2 – 5 and make sure you check-in to show you are part of the best collaborative work space for freelancers and start-ups here in Tampa Bay.

IdeaField Coworking received a visit from Bay News 9 reporter Kristi Wolski who joined us to discuss the value of coworking for freelancers and emerging tech businesses. Interviews with IdeaField Co-founder Dan Davie and coworking member and CEO of Hielix, Patty Dodgen, highlighted how coworking helps emerging business develop more efficiently through shared office space and access to the collaborative resources found within the grass roots tech community.

You can read the full article and view the video segment at Bay News 9.

Checkout “How Entrepreneurship Really Works” from Dave Troy, entrepreneur and founder of Beehive Coworking located outside of Baltimore. In this post Dave summarizes the findings from research by Dr. Saras Sarasvathy on the defining characteristics of entrepreneurs and how rather than being aggressive risk takers they are more often just good problem solvers with a passion.

The key message of Dave”s post is that effectual thinking is at the core of good entrepreneurial behavior and that while many authors, speakers and social media experts create a cult-like hype and package it as breakthrough thinking, it all comes back to basic blocking and tackling.

I have been asked to speak at the monthly TECTalk breakfast in March about IdeaField Coworking and how we are coordinating with STARTec to position the coworking community as a component of local economic development. While the main topic is coworking, the underlying theme will be similar to Dave”s post on how to be an effective entrepreneur and how leveraging the power of community increases your chances for success.

This past weekend Tampa’s tech community gathered for the annual unconference known as BarCamp. Not your typical convention or seminar, BarCamp’s are organized and hosted by volunteers and feature presentations given entirely by the attendees. Easel-sized Post-It notes act as the just-in-time agenda and in the first 30 minutes are quickly filled in with topics spanning a wide range of tech and tech business interests.

Local press coverage of BarCamp Tampa:

Creative Loafing article & video (by Miss Destructo)

TB Business Journal pre event coverage (by Michael Hinman)

Short Fusion (Blog by Jason Olmsted)

Examiner.com (by Mihael VanDervort)

The topics shared included the latest IT & web development technologies (Saturday) and everything you ever wanted to know about social media tools and media strategies (Sunday). Intermixed with the ultra-geeky technical sessions were a few business oriented sessions to help those thinking of taking the next step and turning their idea into a start-up. I hosted two discussions, one which was co-hosted by STAR Tec was on turning ideas into start-ups and where to find the resources needed for success. The second discussion was on coworking, but that quickly broadened into a group rant on overall tech community development and how Tampa Bay and Orlando stack up to other metro areas that have or want to have a major tech component as part of their economic landscape. The goal for BarCamp is to share knowledge and further collaboration within the community. This has implications not just for the advancement of technology, but also for the grass roots economic development potential that is embodied in the ideas and the innovators that host and attend these events.

This was my second year participating in Tampa’s event and my fourth BarCamp overall (including two in Orlando) and I can safely say that they just keep getting better. Attendance was up significantly from last year (hoping to see actual numbers soon) and the overall buzz of the unconference was a refreshing break from the usual stale seminars and networking that pass for technology events in Tampa. Thanks again to USF College of Business Administration for hosting the event and opening up their great facility to the tech community.

If you participated this year, thanks! If you missed it, set you sights on next year and check out the local Web Tech Meet-up that is always looking for more volunteers to share the effort.

The folks at BLANKSPACES have done it again. A simple yet elegant commercial explaining the power of Coworking.

Fill in the BLANK from BLANKSPACES on Vimeo.

You guys rock!

Want the coworking experience in Tampa? Join us at IdeaField for the creative, collaborative workspace that helps you get shit done.

Our friends and supporters @Ad2 Tampa Bay and Tampa Digital invited the co-founders of IdeaField – Tampa’s first official Coworking destination to take part in their weekly AdCast Web program. If you haven’t checked out our facility in Tampa Heights yet, then make plans to join us for FreeFridays and see why Coworking is taking off all over the world.