Very exciting, I have my thinking cap on!!

And… Patentability is NOT a requirement – preferred but NOT required.

https://www.edisonnation.com/contests/103/entri...

“Requirements:
Your submission must be unique, innovative and preferably patentable (but not required).”

Very exciting!

Thanks, Colonel, for the web site. The school supply shopping season is upon us – stuff is being set up at Target right now. I’m in the midwest, where school starts in the middle of August. Perfect time to go research!

My kids and I love shopping for school supplies, and as a mother of four, I can throw this out to everyone if it helps you come up with ideas. Most supplies are pretty inexpensive, and I steer my kids to those! It’s not that individual items cost that much, it’s the fact that you have to buy so much at once, and multiply that by the number of kids you have, and you can leave the store minus a few hundred dollars.

So, in the middle of the school year, I may be open to buying my kid a notebook or folder with a great design on it or some other fun gizmo, and pay 3 – 4 times more than the more generic alternative. But, in back-to-school season, when I have to buy so much, we go for the more generic, purely functional products.

Also, even though we are all fairly messy people, especially my kids, they LOVE to get themselves organized for a new school year. Anything they perceive will help them keep their stuff together, keep things neat, and help them not lose papers and supplies, they just beg for. And with girls, if the item is cute, they have to have it and will find a reason that they need it! Never underestimate the power of cute!!!

Good luck. May the G’s be with us all!

I agree. Price is major for us too, especially since half the notebooks and folders we bought came home unused or partially used. I was also surprised to see the workbooks that came home only about 1/3 used. Lots of wasted paper.

So far I’ve got 2 @ G3 for Carolina Pad (just got the second G3 today)…so now the waiting begins. I’ve still got my thinking cap on.

Good luck Kristy! I’m still developing something but haven’t entered yet.

Thanks Margaret! You still have a whole month before the deadline to work on your invention, so good luck to you also.

all this got to be better than hiring just a design team to think one up

What’s the Carolina Pad? It’s not on my dash board.

Hi Raymond,

Take a look at the opportunities tab above. It will show the active searches. Carolina Pad is a search for innovative school, office and organizational supply products. You won’t have a dashboard for it until you submit an idea to the search.

stage 3!

This search ends tonight. Good Luck everyone!

Just got my submission in – G1!

I got two in this one! Both at G2. Margaret and Holly, looks like we’re going to be in a lot of LPS’s together! Let’s hope this one comes to a resolution faster than BB&B! (And a better outcome for all of us!)

It was fun researching this one. I don’t have kids so don’t typically check out the new school supplies. Loved seeing all the supplies at the different stores. Carolina Pad was in most of the stores that I checked!
I submitted one idea and it’s at G2 :-) Looks like the ladies are more interested in this search! Go Girls!

Hey…now I’m offended! I’m in this one, I won’t let gender lines keep me out of it! LOL!

Good luck everyone and I’m glad you had fun with it Holly.

Just got a G3! And one still at G2.

Don’t feel outnumbered Phillip. Mine has been at G3 for about a month. This isn’t ladies only, or parents only. I work in an office.
Good luck everybody :)

Two at G3! Dashboards are moving!

Now we wait. G3 seems to always sit there the longest. ZZZzzzzzzz…..

One at G3. Is anyone at G4?

Just wondered if anyone knows why they extended this one. G3 and holding.

I have one in it and it too is stuck at G3. I do not believe they set a meeting date for this one yet and with Walmart’s meeting coming up fast I’m sure they are more focused on that one.

3G3

Thanks Phillip….I also was wondering, how many people (1000-10,000) usually submit for the LPS and do most go to G3, till the deadline? Where will you find the “Meeting Date” for a LPS?
I took the opportunity to tweek my ideas and add more information in all my projects.
2 G3 and one in developement……….
Seems that many are on G3 in all the forums. Good Luck to everyone!!!!! Go Green!!

Teresa – The “how many people enter” is a carefully guarded thing apparently. Lots of people have been asking that and they don’t give the answer. I did suggest once that they add the number to the dashboards…so when you hit G3, you know how many others are at G3 for that search. EN seemed to appreciate the idea, but it hasn’t been enacted.

What they will tell you is how many ideas get presented to the sponsor. For the BB&B Women of Invention, we found out on the forums that just over 100 ideas were presented, and BB&B selected around 30 of those to consider.

I don’t know, but I’d venture to guess the reason EN doesn’t want to disclose the number of people entering an LPS is because it might be intimidating. People may not enter if the number gets too high, they may feel that they don’t stand a chance. That’s why I think it would be good if you could find out only after you enter, when it pops up on your dashboard.

The dashboards now include presentation dates, which is new since the redesign. Also, there is a forum just for presentation dates. They don’t usually have those dates available until well after the search closes. I’m sure there is no way to select a date until they know how many ideas they have to evaluate first.

Renee-Thank you for the explaination. I wondered if I missed something on my dashboard. I see in some of the forums they were doing a count down. If you make it to the G7 stage, that’s huge already!!
So happy to have this opportunity to present my ideas without the huge hassle and cost of doing it myself. Wishing you and everyone success here. Go Green!!!!!

R4 Guess there are lots of cleaver ideas at Carolina Pad!! Good Luck to those still in the running!

Teresa,

I’m sorry to hear about your R. Maybe it will be a better fit for an upcoming search.

That means the dashboards are moving! Sorry about the R4 – R&R: Re-evaluate and resubmit!

I have a G4. It would be wonderful if I could incorporate my Sell Sheet that I have pending. The company said it should be completed sometime this week. Best of luck everyone.

I’m still at G3. Good luck to everyone!

Still no movement. This one is taking quite some time to get moving.

3G3

Presentation date: November 9th

Still at G4, but I just added a Sell SHEET to the dada base. I can’t believe how the Sell Sheet brings the product to life.(Thank you Roger Brown for introducing me to Sell Sheets). I first had a virtual prototype picture made and then I sent it to a company that creates sell sheets. I’m so pleased with the results that were obtained by using this method. A man named James from typevisions.com did an excellent job and I would highly recommend him to all of you.

How much did it cost, Mary?

Mary,

What on earth is a sell sheet?? Did i miss something here?
:)

Think of a sell sheet as a brochure or flyer that uniquely, attractively, and effectively explains your product concept to the buyer. The sell sheet is one sheet of paper that provides the buyer with an accurate description of your product concept. Explaining the many uses and benefits. Creatively designed to spark buyer interest. My sell sheet for example consists of:
1. Realistic picture of my product in use.
2. Six statements why the product is needed
3. Five statements how it can be used.
4. 8 statements about the benefits of the product.

In other words it’s one full page of advertisement for your product. A sell sheet is also everything you want to explain to the buyer about the product. The sell sheet is also a great tool and is used to reinforce your product concept after you have made that initial contact with a buyer.

The cost of my sell sheet was $149.00, which included one revision. I had to pay up front which kind of worried me. .However, after I paid them the designer James phoned me the very next day. I explained my concept, sent him a virtual picture and some product information. The whole process probably took about two months to complete.

Jaclyn,

For more information you might try searching Sell Sheet topic in the forum. You may also want to Friend request Roger Brown because he has a few examples of sell sheets posted on his web page. I hope this helps.

Sell sheets are used by businesses all the time. I used to work for Ralston Purina when they owned Continental Baking (who makes Wonder Bread and Hostess Cupcakes). Every time they came up with a new product or even a product improvement we produced a sell sheet for the sales staff to sell the product into the grocery stores.

$149 is pretty cheap – but I can’t believe yours took 2 months!

$149 sounds good.

2 months seems like a long long time though.

I think I understand the ‘sell sheet’ idea, however, isn’t that what you’re doing when you submit your idea to EN? What does $149 get you over what you could do yourself? I must have missed that point.
Linda

Mary,

Thank you very much for your thorough explanation. If my ASOTV submission gets shot down this sounds like something I may use to present it to a retailer.
However, I agree w Linda. This is kinda the point of EN, no? It does sound very attractive for marketing elsewhere, however.

Thanx!

Jackie

Less than a month to go before the presentation and I am still at G3.

Where’s everyone else?

3G3

G3, but that’s ok. I still have to finish my prototype.

G5 for 3 weeks now

G3

G3