How do innovators get their great ideas? Often by being exposed to lots of good material from different worlds. Some good stuff that I’ve found:

• FlickrStorm is a great tool that provides a collage of Flickr photos based on a theme, for example, "lemon" or "China." It’s a fun way to visually see unrelated things with one commonality.

If you prefer your brainstorming in person, check out The Hub.  What is it? According to their home page:

"The Hub is an incubator for social innovation. We offer membership of inspirational habitats in major world cities for social innovators to work, meet, learn, connect and realise progressive ideas. The Hub is a place for making things happen. All the tools and trimmings needed to cultivate an idea, launch a project, host a meeting and run a business. You can find us in London, Johannesburg, Rotterdam, Bristol and Sao Paulo. You’re invited."

And if you’re not in one of those cities, a similar concept for women solopreneurs in New York City is In Good Company. Read more here.

And finally, there’s TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. According to their website:

"It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)."

I love their tagline: "Ideas worth spreading."

What I love is that even if you don’t get invited to this exclusive gathering, many of the talks are available on their site for free.

Clearly, there’s no shortage of ideas in the world….