Meetings are at the Enterprise C

IRN member Craig Issod has approached the world of innovation and entrepreneurship from a variety of angles. As a business owner, he has introduced successful and innovative products to the market. As an inventor with multiple patents, he has experienced all the stages and the ups and downs of developing products and marketing them. Craig also has extensive experience in the online world, having started and operated a leading web site which is visited by three million readers each year! Craig interacts with innovators and potential inventors through his teaching of workshops and classes at various colleges, including Holyoke Community College (information on his spring classes is listed in the next column.)

Craig's presentation will be wide ranging and 'flexible', describing his own experiences as the inventor of the 1/2 Kettle, Extendaflue and other products. He will also be willing to share his experiences on marketing, online ventures, importing, manufacturing and other general topics - questions and input from the attendees will be welcome!

Cheryl Dutton of EdisonNation and Inventors Digest magazine
Experiences with Live Product Searches
December 2, 2009

One of the major changes that has occurred for the independent inventor has been the method of getting their new product ideas in front of manufacturers and companies. A dozen years ago, companies did not want their competition to know that they would look at products from outside their own research and development arms. They also found that a great deal of time was wasted dealing with inventors who did not understand the ‘rules’ of non-disclosures and who wanted to show products that did not match their needs. Inventors at shows such as the Minnesota Inventors Congress and the Yankee Invention Exposition complained bitterly about how difficult it was to get in the door of companies. Frustration ran high on both sides.

Flash forward to 2009 and times have changed. Many companies now actively seek outside products (Proctor and Gambel’s goal for the last few years has been to identify 50% of their new products from outside.) and new media opportunities have changed the way to get attention to new products. IRN member Cheryl Dutton will talk about her experiences with Edison Nation’s product submission process. Cheryl is an inventor, real estate agent and gold member of Edison Nation. Many may recognize her EN screen name "Just Cheryl" At the request of Inventor's Digest, Cheryl held a mirror to Edison Nation in her article in the June 2009 issue of Inventor's Digest which gives an unvarnished look at the site that hosts Live Product Searches, linking inventors with retailers and manufacturers. Cheryl has had several innovations make it to the finalist stage with EN and be presented to retailers.

Erin Kelly-Dill of Plainfield, Massachusetts will talk about the business she has built around her product, SnackTAXIs. SnackTAXIs are reusable bags for snacks and sandwiches. She developed SnackTAXIs in 2003 “as a way to stem the tide of plastic ziplock bags that flowed from our house to the landfill when our 3 kids started school!” Sold in twenty-nine states and in Canada, Erin is committed to keeping the business local, and says she will never outsource her labor. She provides employment for several people at her home-based workshop

SnackTAXIs are slender, washable cotton pouches with nylon interiors. A flap with a Velcro fastener closes them up. They come in two sizes -- 6 by 4.5 inches and 7.5 by 6 inches -- and sell for $6.95 and $8.95, respectively, and can be ordered at the Web site www.snacktaxi.com.

Erin will also talk about her experiences that led to a name change from “Happy Sacks” to snackTAXIs as well as her appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN.

Mike Collins is the CEO and founder of Big Idea Group (BIG), based in Manchester, NH, an open-innovation company that bridges the gap between some of the world’s largest manufacturers and the people on the streets who often have some of the world’s best ideas. Over the years, Collins has met with literally thousands of these idea people, some of whom call themselves inventors and a great many more who are simply innovative thinkers, creative problem solvers, or average Joes with a light bulb moment.

Through BIG, Collins has worked with many of these everyday experts, helping them get their products shown and sometimes licensed to companies that previously showed no interest in getting help from outside the walls of their own research and development laboratories. But Collins’s reputation for spotting worthwhile innovation and his no-games business policies have enabled him to walk through the doors that lone inventors only bump up against.

Mike is a frequent speaker on the business of innovation, appearing at industry conventions, university forums, and inventor groups. He is also the author of The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone, published by John Wiley. Mike is a serial entrepreneur, having launched six businesses, including Kid Galaxy, a specialty toy company and producer of the award-winning Bendos line and his most recent venture, Rebound Driveway Marker with partner Arra David.

Daniela is the inventor and developer of the Kidknows™ Outdoor Thermometer, a thermometer that empowers kids to choose the right clothing for various outdoor temperatures even if they are not old enough to recognize numbers and understand the concept of measuring the outdoor temperature. As they continue using their thermometer, kids can learn to read numbers and to understand the concept of measuring the outdoor temperature. One advantage is the elimination of the morning power struggle between parents and children over appropriate clothing by providing parent and child with a pictorial reference of how cold or warm it is outside.

Daniela is using the experience she acquired as she worked for years as an independent consultant for various medical and consumer products companies from her home in Andover MA. Before staying home with her kids, Daniela was an IDSA Award winning industrial designer working for Product Genesis Inc. and Arthur D. Little Inc. She founded DHS Design LLC, an industrial design consulting, product development company, and owner of the Kidknows trademark in early 2009.

Daniela will describe the steps and the decision-making processes she has taken in developing her product and making the transition to selling it.

James E Richardson is an Industrial Designer and new-product development consultant who was based in southeastern Connecticut for 25 years until recently relocating in southern Maine. He has been involved in developing industrial and consumer products for major corporations like Anhueser Busch, Miller Brewing, and News America-in-Store, and has consulted on numerous new product based entrepreneurial startups. Some of his past projects can be viewed at www.richardson-assoc.com. Mr. Richardson has been awarded 19 US patents for product innovations

was the president of the Connecticut chapter of the Inventors Association, (IACT) and has been the subject of numerous articles in national publications like the N.Y. Times and Fortune magazine. He has been a regular guest speaker at the University of Maine law school entrepreneurial seminars and a speaker at inventor and entrepreneurial organizations in the Northeast.

Last year Mr. Richardson, along with marketing clients, invented and developed two new products. One licensed product is called SunCalc, which lets gardeners place plantings in ideal light conditions. The other product is a unique cooler for draft beer that is being contract manufactured in the US and sold exclusively to Anhueser Busch.

His talk will outline the process of developing a new product using solid modelling and SLR prototyping methods as a development tool. He will show other prototyping methods using past projects as examples.

Tom, from Holyoke, Massach-usetts, is the developer of the Buntdown Baseball Training Bat. Buntdown was voted "Best of Show" at the American Baseball Coaches Association Convention in Philadelphia.

Buntline.com describes Tom’s product as “similar in size to a conventional bat but differing in shape in that the hitting surface is half-round from just above the trademark to the end of the bat. This encourages the batter to keep the bat over the path of the ball which is essential when bunting. When used properly, this bat teaches the batter to hit the ball on the ground and not to pop it into the air. Repeated use effectively reinforces the primary rule in bunting which is to let the ball come to the bottom of the bat.” Tom’s product represents the first significant change in a product that has been on the market since 1957.

Tom will describe the story behind the development of his product, applying for his design patent, and his sales strategy.

Craig Issod, Inventor, Patent Holder and Entrepreneur
Perils, Pitfalls and Pleasures of the Small Inventor....

Long time IRN member Craig Issod brings a variety of experiences to his involvement in the world of invention. Craig will share his experiences as an entrepreneur and inventor who has focused on a narrow niche in the marketplace to develop his business. In 1986, Craig partnered with Richard Brown and J. Dell Conner to develop and market the “1/2 Kettle”, a patented tea kettle which fit on the narrow ledge of many Fireplace inserts. Craig manufactured and marketed the Hearth Kettle with first year sales exceeding projections. The business was sold in 1998. Craig has two patents. In 1990, Craig purchased the US and Canadian importing rights to the [HS Tarm boilers] and introduced a number of new products including the Excel Multi-Fuel Gasification boiler. He created HearthNet, a top rated site on the Internet. Craig teaches classes titled “bring your invention to market" as well as "success on the internet" classes as adult classes at Holyoke Community and Greenfield Community Colleges. He also is president of CHI Associates: Common Sense Internet and Business Consulting. Craig is currently at work on multiple projects, including a new venture in the hearth business and patented inventions. For more information about Craig and his current businesses, visit www.hearth.com and http://hearth.com/chiassoc/chi.html

Jim Roper, Sales Manager at Universal Plastics, will provide a quick overview on selecting the correct plastic process for new products, then delve a little deeper into thermoforming and why it is a good choice for products that meet certain criteria. Jim will also talk about the importance of market research and his experience with otherwise good products that have floundered because of lack of market research.

Universal Plastics is a 43 year old family run company in Holyoke that uses thermoform processes to make a wide array of products. – UP has been an industry leader in the development of the process. Manufacturing components for corporate giants such as Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky and local companies such as Bay State Health, Universal Plastics has a very diverse portfolio that includes working with start up entrepreneurs needing prototypes and small runs of a few hundred or few thousand items. An article in the July 21, 2008 issue of Business West describes two such products, the Garden glide and a new table game.

Universal Plastics’ web site says: “As we have grown, we have refined and further developed the thermoforming process to allow the manufacture of large and complex products that could never have been conceived in the previous generation. Today's thermoformed products can match the quality and finish of injection molding, in high performance plastics, and in sizes that dwarf the capabilities of most molders.” http://www.universalplastics.com/

Dave Bergeron of Facility Supply Company in Easthampton will tell us how he invented, patented, launched a new product and created a small business that he and his wife run from their home. Dave’s web site describes his business:

“Facility Supply, is America’s leading emergency roof leak response system supplier. Our commitment to deliver consistent quality products and excellent customer service is backed by a proven 30 year track record. We eagerly accept the challenge to deliver dependable, emergency leak damage protection systems that get the job done on time.....every time. Facility Supply's Port A Drain Leak Diverters including our patented "Universal Ceiling Leak Diverter" are crafted in America. Please visit our secure web site https://www.facilitysupply.com”.

We’re pleased to announce that our June speaker is Elizabeth Perrotti. Elizabeth has 20 years inventing products and is a named inventor on eight US patents, whose inventions have generated $100 million in sales at retail. Elizabeth, a published author and the creator of courses and seminars on the invention process, is a consultant to new inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs. This program is co-sponsored by the Small Business Development Center. Additional information about Elizabeth at: www.theinventinglife.com

Valley Marketing is the area’s most diversified promotional products and corporate recognition distributor in this area. Located at the Eastworks Building in Easthampton, Massachusetts, Valley Marketing offers promotional products, corporate recognition, online services, graphics and fulfillment. Company owner and President John Richards will present an outline of this unique industry and answer questions such as: What is a promotional product, how to select a product and how to bring your product or idea to the promotional product market. Valley Marketing services major corporate clients, small area businesses and non-profits, including public TV and public radio in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut. www.valleymarketing.net/

Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Marketing Your Invention through Catalogues
Jack Lander, Inventor-Mentor.com

Jack has written a popular featured column for Inventors' Digest magazine for the past eight years, and served as the invention development and manufacturing expert for Entrepreneur.com, the Internet arm of Entrepreneur magazine. He has also written and published a book on job searching, and was commissioned to write Make Money by Moonlighting by Ted Nicholas of Entrepreneur Publishing Co. He produced and edited THE Inventor's Master Plan for the United Inventors Association, and authored the chapter on prototyping for Don Debelak's book, Think Big.

He has served as President of the prestigious United Inventors Association, a not-for-profit umbrella organization that helps inventor networking groups and inventors throughout North America. He presently serves his ninth year as Vice President of the (not-for-profit) Yankee Invention Exposition and Yankee Entrepreneur Workshops., He founded Innovators Network, a local inventor group in Connecticut, and The Inventor's Bookstore, a "dot-com" business that is now a not-for-profit subsidiary of the United Inventors Association.

Jack is a mechanical engineer who has received ten patents on highly successful laparoscopic surgical instruments, computer chip testing devices, and a bicycle transmission that is more efficient than the traditional derailleur. He was the founder of Shortrun/Precision Fabricators, a business that specialized in producing prototypes and short production runs for high-tech businesses in the Los Angeles area.

Jack has helped more than two thousand inventors in the U.S. and many other countries by telephone, mail, and e-mail, and coaches inventors in all aspects of the invention process. http://www.inventor-mentor.com

All in Play provides fully accessible online games for the entire family. While Texas Hold ‘Em, Crazy Eights and Draw Poker are games enjoyed by millions, All in Play’s business plan has been to take the game craze online. And very importantly, All in Play’s games are fully accessible to people who are blind or have limited vision.

Paul spoke at the October 2001 IRN meeting, when the company was called ZForm. He will speak with us about the trip the company has taken since then.Paul has raised $250k from angels, pitched to venture capitalists and runs the River Valley Investors angel investor group in Springfield, helping investors find young companies seeking investment. At the River Valley Investors Paul coaches all incoming entrepreneurs on how to fine tune their presentations. Paul has recently launched Angel Catalyst which provides turnkey management solutions that enables angel investor groups to focus on what they do best: finding, evaluating and investing in quality deals.

Paul also heads the UMass Entrepreneurship Initiative, a very exciting credit progam for students in which they get real world experience as they work on developing their own businesses.

Leslie and Eddie Grinnell of Shelburne Falls will describe the development and growth of their business, Eddie’s Wheels at the August 1 meeting of the Innovators Resource Network. The Grinnells, along with several employees, provide carts used by dogs that have lost the use of limbs due to injury, disease, or age. The wheelchairs (carts) are custom made, based on a dog’s measurements, breed and disability. Since 1999, their carts have been delivered all over the world and in 2002, they began their association with a Japanese rep who directly imports carts made here for Japanese customers.

Dick Fuchs, long time IRN member, will speak on getting new products to market through licensing. Dick holds a number of patents and has had a several products successfully licensed. Dick creates his own prototypes and pre-production samples in his machine shop which includes equipment that allows him to do testing, diagnostics, and measuring. Dick has a very ‘real world’ approach to inventing.

His products include The Putty Chaser™, The Ignition Check™, The Ignition Trak™, and Better Edges™, a knife sharpener.

The featured speakers will be Southampton, Massachusetts based product developers Chris and Sonia Hillios. Inventors and developers of SeaDine Snorkel Snax™, their underwater fish food is “a revolutionary fun way to feed fish while snorkeling, swimming or diving.”

Chris and Sonia established Seadine in 2004. They will describe the ups and downs they encountered in getting their business launched, focusing in part on the manufacturing problems that arose and the marketing issues they have faced.

Snorkel Snax™ is a unique, patented underwater fish feeding system. Conceived in the Caribbean, and made in USA, this ingenious product utilizes a proprietary blend of marine grade fish food.

Fran Appleby, president and co-owner of A&A Packaging in West Springfield, will speak on packaging at the December 6^th meeting of the Innovators’ Resource Network. Ms. Appleby has been in the packaging business for over 25 years and started A & A Packaging, Inc. in January 1995. She has been involved in the entire packaging process for products. She designs, provides prototypes, contracts for manufacture all types of packaging products. Ms. Appleby will discuss how decisions concerning packaging can affect the bottom line as well as how under packaging a product may hurt sales of the product and how over packaging can drastically reduce profit dollars. A question and answer period will follow.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006
Trademarks, Don Holland Holland and Bonzagni, PC.

Don will provide an overview of trademarks. He will introduce us to the basics of trademarks and we will learn which brands can be registered, how to select marks that can be protected, how to avoid improper usage problems and how to protect marks.

HOLLAND & BONZAGNI is recognized for trademark innovation and litigation by virtue of several difficult registrations it has obtained, (e.g., the color "tan" for tool boxes) and its string of "trademark" successes in court. The firm has working relationships with various IP law firms worldwide, and has enjoyed stopping knockoffs in foreign markets. The firm is a member of the International Trademark Association ("INTA") and is included in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. Don received his law degree from the University of Miami and holds undergraduate degrees in liberal arts from Colgate University and in aerospace engineering from the University of Connecticut.

In the mid-1970s, Don Holland was a Patent Examiner in "Rotary Pumps and Turbines" at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Don has been a member of the Adjunct Faculty at Western New England College School of Law in Springfield, MA. Don has also co-taught in the Paralegal Program at Bay Path College. In addition, Don has acted as an arbitrator and an Early Neutral Evaluator (a.k.a. mediator) in IP litigation.

Don has written a booklet that many nationwide corporations use, entitled "Corporate Guide to Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights and Trade Secrets." That booklet is in its fourth edition and has received many plaudits. It is available at http://www.hblaw.org

“Understanding ‘Risk’ in Bringing New Products to Market” is the presentation for the August 2 meeting of the Innovators’ Resource Network. Dave Cormier and Karyl Lynch of Pelham West Associates, will discuss risk from the point of view of the inventor bringing a product to market as well as for a company licensing a product from an inventor. They will draw upon their experience providing new product evaluation services to client companies. As product scouts they match companies seeking new products with products developed by independent inventors and they provide third party evaluation services for submissions made directly to client companies. Their clients range from small manufacturers to Fortune 100 companies. They are also partners in a manufacturing business in Massachusetts.

In business for eight years, Cormier and Lynch are frequent speakers at inventor events, including the Minnesota Inventors Congress and Yankee Invention Expo and they were speakers at the US Patent and Trademark Office’s 10th Annual Independent Inventors Conference in 2005.

Meeting: Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Michael Wales
Resources Conservation, Inc.

Michael Wales, from Riverside, Connecticut, will talk with us about his experiences as an inventor and developer and owner of a company.

Michael tells us:
“I don't have a resume other than I started my company making a full line of plumbing fixtures in 1978 and sold it to Masco (Delta Faucet) in 2001. I didn't go to college, and started my company by myself and had no partners or investors. I had 200 plus employees and sold my products to Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowes, and Target plus all of the regional chains and distributors. I had approximately 20 or so patents.” Michael’s patents include showerheads, aerators and sprayers. Michael now offers services to inventors.

Meeting: Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Warren Tuttle: House-wares Industry Marketing Guru

For those familiar with the current television direct-response mega-hit Smart Spin, Warren Tuttle was the person who spent the past two years behind the scenes orchestrating it’s “overnight” success. Teaming with a Boston, MA-based inventor, Tuttle mapped a path to market which includes the additional launch this Spring of an upscale version for department and specialty stores under the brand name Glida+Stor. Please visit www.smartspin.com to learn more.

During the past several years, Warren led the sales effort behind several other recent innovative kitchen product introductions including MISTO, The Gourmet Olive Oil Sprayer and StirChef, The Hands-Free Saucepan Stirrer. In 2005, QVC unveiled another Tuttle market first; the “Toss It All” raised edge fry-pan. This unique product was designed and patented by a local Westchester County chef and restaurateur. Meyer Cookware also licensed the patent for their version of the pan called the “Toss and Turn” pan, which was the single best selling cookware piece sold at better department and Specialty Stores across the country this past year. Tuttle’s long term goal is to change the traditional shape of the fry pan and additional licensing agreements with other cookware manufacturers are currently in process.

Tuttle, and his business partner Ed Ryan, have over 50 years of combined house-wares industry experience in retail buying, sales, product development and marketing. They recently formed a partnership under the name of Bear Mountain Marketing (which has nothing to do with house-wares, but everything to do with skiing, which they both try to do as often as possible). Tuttle and Ryan know every major house-wares retail buying group in the country and most industry manufacturers. They additionally have extensive knowledge in directly sourcing products. Searching the world for unique, kitchen-related products, patents and inventors, and then introducing these unique products to market, is the key to their unique business model.

Warren will speak about his past marketing and manufacturing successes, as well as some of the new products he will be bringing to market this year. You may not have heard of these products yet but hopefully, in the near future, they will become household names.

What makes a product successful? On one hand, it seems easy to define (good design, function, ease of use, price, manufacturability) but, on the other hand, we're all familiar with products that we thought should have been top sellers and which disappeared quickly and we've all shaken our heads over others that have amassed sales and wondered why. The format for this meeting is a discussion focused on identifying key characteristics of 'successful products'. Rick Ricard of Larien Products will moderate.

Innovators' Resource Network

Promoting Innovation, Enterprise, and Invention