Pilcrow House wants to be Philly’s ‘place for interesting ideas’

A symbol used by medieval rubricators while crafting manuscripts (this one: ¶) inspired the name of a new project called Pilcrow House, a self-proclaimed “place for interesting ideas.”

The Philly-based project, a creation of former Technical.ly Philly cofounder Sean Blanda, is an event series that hopes to spur long-form conversations with key figures in politics, culture, sports and business.

“That symbol marks the start of a new idea or paragraph on a piece of paper,” Blanda said. “The thinking was I wanted to bring new and interesting ideas in one place.”

Similar to how the Free Library of Philadelphia is a must for authors visiting the city, Blanda sees Pilcrow house as a beacon for figures from all areas of society.

“It’s also a beta test,” the founder said. “These first three to five events will help shape that vision.”

Much like Philly literary community Blue Stoop, Pilcrow House is trying to get things started without a fixed location, with a long-term eye to having a physical location in town.

For now though, Pilcrow House will leverage local spaces like Seer Interactive’s offices in NoLibs. On Nov. 29, the first Pilcrow House event will take place at Seer, featuring Behance founder Scott Belsky.

It happened! Very very very happy to announce @PilcrowHouse and its first event: An interview with @scottbelsky author of the brand new book "The Messy Middle" on 11/29 in NoLibs. Tickets are $25 and the first 50 peeps get a free copy of his book. https://t.co/fP9RDYHC7r

— Sean Blanda (@SeanBlanda) October 9, 2018

“Everyone glamourizes either the funding or the exit of a business,” said Blanda, who formerly worked for Belsky as director of 99U. “Scott will talk about the messy, terrible, frustrating part of starting a business that no one talks about.”

Ultimately, Blanda said, events hosted by Pilcrow House look to routinely help people increase their understanding of complex issues.

“Is this even possible?” Blanda asked. “I don’t know, but this is the North Star that’s guiding it.”