Inventing the Future

When Charles Corry walked onto the stage of the Shark Tank-like Piranha Pit at Saturday’s DaVinci Inventor Showcase, his iExpander product was still $6,000 away from making the goal of $125,000 on Kickstarter. As of this morning, he has not only passed his goal, now exceeding $140,000, but still has 6 more days to go.

The iExpander is a brilliantly designed case for the iPhone that dramatically improves photo quality and battery life, and adds an expandable SD memory slot for virtually unlimited storage capability.

As the Piranha Pit investors listened to the pitch they started scratching their heads, asking the simple question, “Why do you need us?”

Charles was quick to respond, saying that his product fits into a very competitive marketplace and having a great product and money is simply not enough. He was looking for a smart-money partner.

The story of the iExpander was only one of hundreds of stories unfolding at this event. With influential people, mixed with powerful innovation, and extra large doses of passion, drive, creativity, and determination, it is one of those rare occurrences where people can literally see the future taking shape right in front of them.

As a futurist, it is the brilliance of these visionaries that breathes inspiration into the work that I do. But this is only scratching the surface. Here’s what you really missed.

Setting the Stage, Announcing the Winners

The DaVinci Inventor Showcase is an annual event produced by our amazing team at the DaVinci Institute. Even though I serve as the Executive Director of the Institute, the vast majority of the work is handled by Deb, Jan, Andrew, and Kyler.

Now in its 8th year, we attract inventors from all across the U.S. to be part of what has become one of the nation’s most prestigious inventor events.

Winner of the 2012 “Inventor of the Year Award” - Power Practical

Winning top prize at this year’s event was Power Practical for their ingenious device called the Power Pot. Using the magic of thermoelectric power generation, the PowerPot is a cooking pot generator that uses the heat from cooking to run a 5W generator that can power up to 2-3 USB devices at a time. With 5 watts of output and a USB interface, the product is designed to supply the power necessary to charge devices anywhere, including people living in poverty in far away countries.

There was no shortage of creativity at this event. The complete list of inventors receiving awards and honorable mentions included:

• Inventor of the Year Award – Power Practical - Providing practical personal power solutions. The PowerPot is the first product, which takes fire & water and makes electricity.
• Commercial Product of the Year Award – SafeAwake – A smoke alarm aid, designed specifically for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, that integrates tactile stimulation and low frequency sound to awaken a sleeping person in a fire emergency.
• Consumer Product of the Year Award – Cloud Dome - A revolutionary line of photography products, each one specifically designed to make you a better and faster product photographer.
• Software Product of the Year Award – Megathread – Provides greater social affinity and integration through building authentic credentials across any online community platform.
• Food & Drink Product of the Year Award – Bee Nut Free - Sensibly portioned gluten free, nut free, dairy free nutritious snack items.
• Special Award – Education Innovation of the Year Award – Regis University – Universal Entrepreneur Education System.
• Honorable Mention – Gate Glide - Gate support system that stops a wooden gate from sagging due to weather and gravity and makes it easy to open and close.
• Honorable Mention – iExpander - An expansion device for the iPhone that has microSD card memory, provides unbelievable low light images, and doubles the battery life.
• Honorable Mention – Grace Skiis – Designs and builds solid, environmentally respectful and innovative, big mountain free ride and powder skis.
• Honorable Mention – Maggies’s Magnificent Cakes - Wisecakes are a patented “gourmet cake in a box” that the consumer just has to add water, stir and bake for a delicious, gourmet cake every time.

With nearly 100 “celebrity judges” weighing in, the selection process involves considerable effort, both on the part of the judges and the team who tallied all the scores.

As we designed this event, we put a tremendous emphasis on the judging process. We ask some very credible people to take valuable time out of their lives to participate in judging these inventions. And it is the combined weight of these individual decisions that gives such far-reaching credibility to these awards.

But that’s still only part of the story.

Positive Human Collisions

We live in a human based world, and even though we now have a far easier time connecting with people all over the world, nothing replaces the one-on-one relationship-building that happens when you can shake someone’s hand and look them directly in the eye.

As a futurist, I don’t see this changing anytime soon. In fact, emotion-based relationships and the energy of human presence may be one of the few unchangeable tenants of human nature.

In the future, communities will be judged by their vibrancy, their interconnectedness, and their fluid structures for causing “positive human collisions.”

The success of this even has been predicated on our ability to create positive human collisions where people who otherwise never have a reason to meet, are sent on a collision course and amazing things begin to happen.

In this particular setting, we go out of our way to find judges who can offer great benefit to the inventors. And since the inventors need many different kinds of help, we find several categories of inventors. Here are a few examples:

• Successful Entrepreneurs – Scott Tibbets, Pat Engstrom, and Steve Meyers are all serial entrepreneurs who have built multi-million dollar companies and are always looking for what’s next.
• Past Winner of the DaVinci Inventor Showcase – People like Jim Turner, Dave McCloskey, and Michael Sitarsewski are all past winners at the Showcase who have all been in their shoes and gone through the struggles of building a successful company from scratch.
• Product Scouts – Brian Abe works as a product scout for the dozens of brands associated with Clorox and Avery Business Products. Scott Cooley is the product scout for McGuckin Hardware.
• Money People – As part of the Piranha Pit, Louis Foreman, Joel Comm, Scott Jordan, and Frank Hoffmeister have all been active as angel investors and deal brokers for people needing money.
• Media People – Ken Clark, news anchor for Fox31, Lisa Hildago, part of the 7News Team, and Alexia Parks, writer for Huffington Post, all know how to draw attention to products, people, and stories.
• Technical Experts – Tom Franklin is a patent attorney with Kilpatrick Townsend. Gene Branch is a patent attorney with Perkins Coie. Jeff Samson is a product design expert with Samson Design.
• Corporate Executives – Andrew Aldrin (son of Buzz Aldrin) is the Development Director for the United Launch Alliance, Sam Rediess is a Director for Oracle, and Stirling Olsen is the CEO of Foraker Labs.
• Other Exhibitors – As an example, Rennie Davis is in the process of launching iPowered Living, a 4,700 acre alternative energy ranch in New Mexico as a solution to one of humanity’s biggest problems.
• Many more…

Special Thanks

We especially want to thank the brilliant and dedicated staff and volunteers at the DaVinci Institute for pulling this event together. Special thanks go out to Deb Frey, Jan Wagner, Kyler Frey, Andrew Frey, Nancy Slattery, Cheri Hoffer, and our many volunteers. Also, thanks go out to our photographer Steve Sokolik, and our videographers Steve Maltz and Paula Zimmerman.

We also want to thank our Sponsors who become very closely involved in the planning, execution, judging, and operation of the event itself. Sponsors included Tom Franklin at Kilpatrick Townsend, Gene Branch at Perkins Coie, Peter Vandevanter at CGX Printing, and Karl Dakin at Regis University..

Without these amazingly talented individual, none of this could have ever happened.

Keynote Speakers

The event not only showcased the brilliance of inventors, but also three of the nation’s top speakers working in the field of cutting edge innovation.

Teresa Stanek Rea is Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Ms. Rea oversees an office that encourages innovation and technological advancement, and helps businesses protect their investments, promote their goods and safeguard against deception in the marketplace. Before joining USPTO in 2011, Ms. Rea was a leading attorney in the field of intellectual property with more than 25 years of legal experience and a past president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Oliver Kuttner is Founder & Chief Executive Officer for the Edison2 Team. One hundred and eleven teams from around the world entered the 100 Mile per Gallon Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize in 2008, and in September 2010 Edison2 was awarded the top prize, winning the Mainstream class and with it $5 million. Oliver is also a commercial real estate developer who was pivotal in revitalizing Charlottesville, Virginia’s downtown. Today, his enlightened and environmentally responsible methods are helping revitalize Lynchburg, Virginia. Practicing what he preaches, Oliver placed Edison2’s offices and assembly facility in a formerly abandoned 360,000 square foot textile factory that now houses over 24 businesses and numerous residences. This important work demonstrates Oliver’s ability to lead complex projects, build business relationships, and deliver results. His broad experience also includes award-winning building design, sports car racing prototype construction.

Louis Foreman currently manages a $25 Million Dollar Innovation Fund dedicated to bringing individuals’ innovations to the marketplace. Louis is a prolific inventor, product developer, innovation enthusiast created nine successful startups and has been directly responsible for the creation of more than 20 others. He is the CEO of EdisonNation, publisher of Inventor’s Digest, and producer of the Emmy Award winning PBS series “Everyday Edison”.

Final Thoughts

If you missed Saturday’s event, you missed an opportunity to watch the universe reshape itself as the future itself is being formed.

Well, maybe not. As you might imagine, I’m a little biased.

Each year I leave this event totally energized, cheering on the sidelines as each of our inventors continues their struggle to build a viable enterprise. It’s never easy.

For those of you who are disenchanted with the way the world is headed, it’s not too late. You personally can invent a better future. I see people doing it every single day, so don’t think it can’t be done.

But always remember, “We shape our future, and then our future shapes us.”

About the author:

Thomas Frey is the innovation editor of THE FUTURIST magazine. This piece was originally posted on his Website, Futuristspeaker.com