Have you been tooling away nights and weekends in the garage, at the
computer or just in your mind contemplating the next big Cincinnati
innovation? Something you believe could join the ranks of Ivory Soap,
Pringles, Swiffer or Benadryl as a household product with nationwide
recognition created right here in Cincinnati?
A new contest open
to the region’s inventors could help make that idea a reality with a
$20,000 top prize going to the winner of the first-ever
Cincinnati Innovates Competition.
Cincinnati Innovates evolved from last year’s
InOneWeekend, which challenged – and equipped – aspiring entrepreneurs to create a viable start-up business in three days.
“The
biggest challenge we have as investors is identifying those inventors
and new ideas in our region. The best innovations come from the most
unexpected places. The inventor of the Uno Card Game was a barber in
Reading. Now, as an investor, how am I supposed to know that I need to
be talking to barbers in Reading to find the number one selling card
game outside of regular poker decks?" explained Elizabeth Edwards, of
Neyer Holdings,
one of InOneWeekend’s organizers. “Cincinnati Innovates is designed to
find the next Uno Card Game, the next Swiffer, and the next oral polio
vaccine, and ultimately create the companies that will create jobs and
wealth for our region.”
The competition, open to a15-county area
of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana, has a broad
reach and can include innovative products, devices, business processes
and more. Edwards expects a variety of strong and varied entrants.
“Consumer
products, web and mobile, digital marketing, medical devices, and green
technologies are some areas where I know we’re going to see a lot of
entries. The most exciting part of this competition is that we don’t
know what we’re going to get. I’ve been researching innovation in our
region for years now and the breadth of technology that exists here is
astounding,” she says.
Area investors sponsoring the contest including Neyer,
CincyTech,
HYPE Cincinnati,
BIOSTART,
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and
Kentucky ezone. Soapbox is also contributing by featuring the most popular video entry each week throughout the contest.
There
are no age restrictions to entering. The contest began May 1 and ends
Sept. 1. Winners of a total of eight prizes – including a community
choice award picked by online voters – will be announced Sept. 18 at
the Contemporary Arts Center downtown. Entries will be judged by
investors and other industry experts from a wide variety of backgrounds.
To enter the contest, go to:
www.cincinnatiinnovates.com. There you’ll enter a short description of your idea and upload pictures, video, or sketches to help explain and showcase it.
The following awards are up for grabs:
CincyTech Commercialization Awards: $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000
Taft Patent Awards: $10,000, $2,500 and $1,000*
Community Choice Award: $2,000
Student Innovator Award: $1,000
*applied toward patent applications and prosecution, sponsored by Taft Stettinius & Hollister
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