Ideas were the name of the game as local officials, business owners and community leaders gathered Thursday in Austin to talk bio-business — and spawn a new project.

The Austin and Mower County Town Meeting Initiative, held at Riverland Community College, brought all of these people together to brainstorm and, afterward, vote on a few projects that will vie for $15,000 in grant money.

Funded by the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation and put on locally by the Development Corporation of Austin, the event looked to tap into the community’s potential in bio-business — generally defined as economic activity involving the science of living things.

John Garry, executive director of the DCA, said the town meeting was designed to cultivate ideas that may have never seen the light of day.

“This is a perfect way to find out who’s out there that we don’t know about,” he said.

And the event stayed true to the idea of new business — existing projects were exempt from consideration and, fittingly given the biological theme, ideas were meant to come organically.

To create these ideas, those in attendance were first asked to brainstorm, elementary-school style with Sharpies and big paper pads.

City council members, Mayor Tom Stiehm and city administrator Jim Hurm were among the officials who gathered around tables with business owners and citizens to chat.

The crowd was asked to identify the existing assets in the area — things that make the city and county unique and viable for business.

After much scribbling, a number of items were identified, ranging from the Hormel Institute and the Austin Medical Center to things such as Austin’s location near the highway and the local schools.

With the brainstorming as a backdrop, the group was next asked if they had any existing ideas to share.

These ideas — such as a renewable heating system for a livestock farm and a local nonprofit research foundation — were put forward as some of the possible projects for grant consideration, but those without ideas initially were encouraged to think of things as the night progressed.

Matthew Kumar, a physician at AMC, came with the idea of an Austin-area research foundation.

The non-profit would help aspiring researchers and inventors move forward with their ideas by working with them on things such as grant writing.

“Citizen inventors need to be fired up,” Kumar said.

The physician said America’s history has been dotted with stories of citizen inventors, like the Wright brothers and Bill Gates, but said they often need help getting started.

“Where can a citizen inventor go?” Kumar said. “How does (an idea) materialize?”

In much the same way his proposed foundation would help idea-formulation, Kumar said meetings like Thursday’s can spur invention.

Mayor Stiehm was also hopeful that the event could help Austin grow.

He said the city definitely has leverage in the bio-business area, but the key is to tap into it.

“We need to do everything we can do to be more competitive,” Stiehm said. “Hopefully, this helps us coordinate things.”

It was in fact Kumar’s idea that garnered the most support Thursday, followed by Tim Carroll’s project to utilize biomass for energy creation and a project to produce food-grade soybeans locally, presented by LeRoy’s Dave Lunning.

Next, the projects go before a town meeting initiative board on Sept. 24, where the $15,000 seed grant — or several smaller grants if multiple ideas are selected — will be awarded.

How successful any of the ideas become remains to be seen, but there very well could be more similar meetings down the road.

Tim Penny, a former U.S. Representative and now the president of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, said a number of town-meeting style brainstorming sessions have taken place already — with themes ranging from elders in the workforce to post-high school options.

“If communities are going to move in any direction,” he said, “it’s going to be based on the assets that already exist.”