Here is a short video we put together from the Houston Inventors Association presentation in February.

Thank you, thank you. It’s great to be here tonight in Houston (cheers whenever someone says Houston).

Yea, that’s exactly how it went last night at the Houston Inventors Association. I almost had to stop them from hoisting me on their soldiers!

But seriously, it was a great event. About 30 inventors showed up to hear how ideatango could help them. Without launching into what you already know, it will just suffice it to say that almost all of them on using this site as a resource. I’ll have some video clips up soon too. We put a few pictures in our photo gallery, but unfortunately they were only of me and not the crowd.

It always amazes me how many people have invention ideas, but just don’t know how to go forward. I mean I was in the same boat before. So was Lisa. Most every inventor association meeting I’ve gone to, 75% of the people there have ideas, but don’t know what to do with them. That’s exactly why we created ideatango and built in such a wonderful education component. So not only can you read articles by experts, watch videos on marketing to patents, but you can even ask questions in our discussion forum.

Imagine what the world would be like if our site could help every person with invention ideas to get their product to market. We’d have so many neat gizmos and gadgets, and we might even cure hunger and find world peace while we’re at it. Help us bring peace - by supporting ideatango! I love it, maybe it should be our new tag line.

We just got back from the Yankee Invention Expo in Waterbury, CT. Want proof? Go see pictures from the Yankee Invention Expo.

What were our thoughts on the event?
First off, it was bigger than I expected. I was expecting 50 exhibitors, when it turned out there were 80+ inventors, service providers. They expected 1000 attendees.
Second, it was a great networking event for inventors. Not only was the other startup company I co-founded, InventWise, there, but so were some very successful inventors, Inventors Digest, several board members from the United Inventors Association, and plenty of positive energy!
Third, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno was there filming wacky inventions. I tried to audition but the guy said that the FCC prohibited filming about web sites. Oh well, worth a try. I’ll see if I can get Jay to start using our site to get some wacky inventors.
Fourth, the booths are much cheaper than Inpex, about 75% less! However the Yankee turnout is about 50% less, so maybe that’s why.

What would make the show better?
First, it would have been nice to have more retailers, manufacturers, and businesses there. From what I noticed, there were lots more manufacturers at the Inpex show.
Second, although some of the public did come in and check out all the neat stuff, I felt that more of the public should have come.

So that’s my synopsis on the show. Overall it was a very good event and we were happy to be a part of it.

Bryan Daigle

To answer the question posed by the title of this post, more that we expected. The HIA event turnout for the show was double what they expected. The show topped out at 250 attendees and the little room was jam packed with inventors, businesses, and service providers. I was impressed!

An MBA student that has been working with me for the summer thought of a great idea to get people to visit our booth . . . hand out free cake! It worked, we didn’t have to take any home. We of course decided to continue our trade show trend of wearing our light bulb (or chef, or pope) hats to draw attention.

The quality of the speakers is what impressed me the most. Apparently the guy who invented the reusable home air filter is from Houston, who knew? He spoke. So did another guy who made money on a weed-eater attachment, and now owns a product development company in Houston. So did Richard Scruggs, a very well connected venture caplitalist, angel investor, serial entrepreneur, and currently head of the Texas A&M Center for New Ventures & Entrepreneurship. All the speakers gave great advice such as:

make sure your invention sells before putting too much money & time into it,
be persistent,
don’t listen to “experts”
look to friends & family for startup money,
start small & grow big (not the other way around),
learn and read everything you can about invention and entrepreneurship.
Helpful advice no matter what your going into.

Bryan Daigle

View the pictures in our photo gallery…