In he walks, like a caricature. You can hear him before you can even see him. What is that sound you ask yourself? A kazoo. When you turn around to look at him, there is a 6 foot something, skinny, African-American man wearing a watermelon hat, a watermelon shirt, black slacks, and watermelon shoes.

That, my friends, is Wally “Famous” Amos in a nutshell. This exuberant positive energy exudes the room, lighting up everyone who sets eyes on him.

I had the pleasure of meeting “Famous” Amos, founder of “Famous” Amos Cookies, and hearing him speak at the INPEX show the other week. Here are the important points from his improvised talk.

Wally on History
Wally started with a history lesson, telling us that Ruth Wakefield invented chocolate chip cookies in the 19th century. She owned an in called Toll House, and her cookies became known as Toll House Cookies (like the brand that exists today).

Wally on His Life
Before starting retail stores that sold chocolate chip cookies, Wally worked in the entertainment business. As an agent for various entertainers – he booked the Supremes and other well known acts – he needed a way to stand out. Using a recipe given to him by his mother, Wally started baking chocolate chip cookies and using them as his calling card. Now he was memorable.

One thing led to another, and Wally became better known for his cookies over time. Quincy Jones suggested he open a store. After finding, losing, and re-finding investors (including Marvin Gaye) to back the first store to sell cookies, “Famous” Amos Cookies was born.

From what I gathered, his business was successful. However, somewhere along the way he didn’t manage the business properly and was removed by the company. Now a major conglomerate owns his name “Famous” Amos and has even sued Wally over trademark infringement.

After losing his business, Wally was in a rut. However, he pulled himself out of the rut by merely changing his attitude from one of negativity, to one of positivity. He has been the kazoo-blowing, watermelon wearing Wally ever since.

He has used his fame to improve literacy rates among children. Recently he has decided to again open retail stores selling cookies and toys. Find out more at www.chipandcookiestore.com.

Wally’s Words of Wisdom

• Life is funny. Life takes unintended directions. But that’s okay, just keep a good attitude and you’ll pull through.
• Work together – “I am more than I am, but less than we are”
• The small person wants credit, the big person wants nothing
• Everyone has access to the same resources he did, just look around, ask the right questions.
• Don’t worry about what others think – use that energy instead to move your product forward
• Don’t be defined by stuff, what you do, friends, or status – what really matters is that you know yourself.
• Everyone is unique. Everyone is a collector’s item.
• Giving is receiving

When a cell phone went off in the room. In true Wally fashion, he hummed his kazoo to the ringtone melody.

We briefly spoke to Wally and he agreed to do an interview with us. Stay tuned for more Wally!

Here is a short video we made with some of the inventors and inventions at the show this year…

IdeaTango headed up to Pittsburgh last week, for the INPEX Invention Show. For those of you that don’t know, the INPEX show is the largest invention show in the US, with roughly 330 exhibitors from across the US and World. This is a brief recap of the event with things we thought make the show a great event, and areas where the show could improve to make it up to the standard of industry shows such as the Housewares show, Hardware show, and Toy Fair. If you’d like to know more about the INPEX show, you can see our recap from last year.

Changes From Last Year
The most notable change from previous years, was the venue. This year, INPEX scored space at the eco-friendly downtown Pittsburgh convention center. The new location gave the show a much more professional feel than the Expomart out in the boondocks of Monroeville, PA. However, the trade off was more expensive booths (50% more!), hotels, and parking. Even with the added exhibitor costs, I much prefer the new convention center to the previous.

What Makes This a Good Event

• From my experience, this show is at least 4 times larger than the next largest US invention show (Yankee).
• The Inventors University education classes from 8am-noon each day, although grueling after spending the entire previous day on your feet on display, have world-class speakers. Generally they are not only very informative, but also engaging. This years speakers were many of the same from previous years, Jill Lublin, Eric Hanscom, Howard Lim, etc. Unfortunately, our very own Lisa Lloyd, who spoke last year, wasn’t able to make it to this years show. Nonetheless, the caliber of the speakers is always high. I’ll post some notes from some of the speakers later this week, so stay tuned…
• In addition to the other speakers, this year’s keynote speaker, Wally “Famous” Amos, the founder of Famous Amos Cookies, was an excellent choice. He was a very positive individual, and although not from the world of inventing, knew the struggles that inventors and small business owners face. He went from poor, to rich, back to poor, and back to well-off. I’ll post notes from his presentation too.
• This show is run very well by the full-time show staff. Everything is on time, in its place, and very professional.

What Could Be Improved

• The first and most important thing that can be improved, which was mentioned last year was well, is that INPEX need to figure out how to draw in MORE FOOT TRAFFIC. I’m not talking foot traffic such as the public, but consumer product companies that are looking for new, innovative products (think Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Clorox, Proctor & Gamble, Sharper Image, etc.). They need to somehow attract the same companies that attend & exhibit at the industry tradeshows, into Pittsburgh this week every June. Otherwise, like many exhibitors I spoke to, they won’t come back because the buyers aren’t there. All in all, I saw about as many buyer type companies at the INPEX show as I saw at the Yankee Show (75% smaller) in Connecticut.
• I will add a small caveat to the number of exhibitors. Roughly 80 or so of the exhibitors were from Malaysia and Croatia. Most of these inventions, although perhaps good products, were highly technical and out of place at an “invention” show.
• Although the speakers for the most part were interesting and informative, sometimes they get in the habit of making the presentation too much of a sales pitch. Of course 5 minutes at the end is okay, but try not to make it too obvious that you sell products or services to inventors.

I hope to see the INPEX show improve it’s buyer/licensor foot traffic. Like I told many exhibitors, there, even if they are at INPEX, they should be going to their industry trade show to get more visibility. Stay tuned for pictures of the light bulb hat (in our Community Photo Gallery) and notes from some of the speakers.

We’re always stressing the importance of market research and due diligence before spending too much time and money on your product. A great way to get a sense of what already exists, and what potential customers and manufacturers might think is to attend an industry trade show.

No matter where you live, you’re probably near a city that has a convention center. The taxpayers need to earn back all that money they spent building the convention center, so they try to schedule as many events as possible at these places. Most likely that convention center near you will have at least a few trades shows or expos in your product’s industry. Many times it’s free to go to trade shows if you pre-register, and less than $20 if you buy at the door.

When you get to these shows, get a lay of the land. Scope out similar products and potential competitors. Ask questions about pricing, marketing, and retailing. Be sure to take notes and write all this information down as it will be crucial in putting together a marketing plan.

If you feel comfortable, you can even ask some of the exhibitors what they think of your product, if they have any recommendations or insight.

Spending a little time at trade shows and events, meeting industry professionals and companies, can really give you much better insight into whether you have a viable product or not. Remember the goal is not to be working on AN invention, but working on the RIGHT invention.

Oh, what a time it was. Frolicking through meadows of grass, playing hide and seek with the neighbors kids, and showing off your latest and greatest toys to friends. No, I’m not talking about childhood, I’m talking about the 2008 International Toy Fair in New York last week! (minus the meadows and hide and seek games unfortunately).

We took a trip up to see what was on the minds of 1300 of the greatest toy inventors and companies in the world. Needless to say, it was an rejuvenating experience. From remote control miniature construction equipment, to funky shaped frisbees, yes, the Toy Fair had it all.

The show covered the two floors of the Jacob Javits Convention Center, on the west side of Manhattan. To keep the show professional, they screen every attendee and prohibit children (adults with child-like minds are allowed though). Parts of the show were categorized, such as board games, or plush toys, or art and design toys. Although many of the booths were for Toy Inventors, there was a small corner section dedicated to early-stage inventors. In this section, booths were smaller, and cheaper, which allowed inventors, that otherwise couldn’t afford to exhibit, the chance to present.

Even our very own Lisa Lloyd was there exhibiting her latest product, TC Pets. To really get a sense of what happened, check out this video or see our photo gallery:

These are some of the inventors from the North Plains Inventors congress. We have two other videos in our blog, and a video of the expert panel in our Education section on patents.

Okay, so maybe you’ve seen the pictures and saw our press release for the big event in North Dakota called North Plains Inventors Congress. But what’s this about Marketplace for Entrepreneurs??

We were confused two as to the significance of the two events taking place back to back on January 15 and 16th. So we’ll try and break it down into it’s simplest form.

The North Plains Inventors Congress, aka NPIC, was put on by Neustel Law Firm. The NPIC is really two things 1) an invention contest and 2) a 4 hour educational seminar on everything related to inventions and ideas.

Since our site, IdeaTango, is based on some pretty sweet patent-pending software, we actually participated in the Invention Contest. However, since the whole purpose of the show is to promote growth in North Dakota, we figured we didn’t stand a chance and participated just for the practice. Roughly 30 inventors competed and the big winner of the $2500 grand prize was actually someone we interviewed. We’ll have that video up later. This guy had created what looks like a golf cart that floats so people could go ice fishing and not worry about the ice breaking since it also floats.

The 4-hour seminar talked about all the important topics like patents, market research, public relations, financing inventions, and more. We’ll have some video and audio in our education section for the different seminars.

Now Marketplace for Entrepreneurs is a much larger part of the show, which promotes all kinds of new business and innovation, not just inventing. There were people with agricultural services, candle makers, business plan contestants, and 100 other small business and service providers. They also had roughly 100 classes for people looking to start their own business, or get their business on the right track.

The exhibition part of the show was only January 16th from 9-5pm. Although the booths were almost free $25, I probably wouldn’t exhibit there if I was an inventor because there were not any manufacturers or quality service providers walking around. Of course if you’re in the upper midwest area, I’d recommend going just for the contest or the helpful seminars.

From the weather side, yes it was friggin’ cold. I haven’t seen that cold of weather since I worked in Russia. My nostrils would freeze shut just walking from the car to the hotel entrance. Just as you would do in any cold weather, we just layered and layered and layered!

Other things of interest, we interviewed Senator Kent Conrad from North Dakota and Michael Neustel who put on the NPIC. Of course we have lots of pictures with locals wearing our light bulb hat, check out our photo gallery. If you were at the show, by all means chip in your thoughts about the show.

If you missed the Colorado Inventor Showcase this year, hosted by the Da Vinci institute, don’t miss it next year. Although it was a relatively small event with 30 exhibitors, many of the judges were venture capitalists, bankers, product development companies, and entrepreneurs roaming the halls. In fact, their were 45 judges. Has anyone ever seen more judges than participants?! It spelled only good news for the exhibiting inventors.

They also had some speakers for the Inventor Boot Camp in the morning. Speakers included an attorney that specializes in licensing, John Funk from Evergreen IP licensing firm, and the keynote speaker of the evening, US Patent Office Commissioner, John Doll. We recorded Commissioner Doll’s keynote speech and you can listed to it in our Education section, under Audio Downloads.

Here are some notes from John Doll’s first speech (not the keynote):

• [attorneys cover ears] Inventors don’t need a lawyer because the USPTO is trying to make the patent process easier
• 95% of patents never sell a single item (one of the reasons we stress testing the marketability of an invention)
• Design patents, although often used by scam companies to give inventors a false sense of protection, can actually be used wisely. Here are some companies that use design patents: Nike on their shoes, Corvette’s bumper
• To avoid getting ripped off by scams, check references. Patent office actually gives an accused company a chance to defend themselves, but they rarely response to written inquiries.
• Public disclosure before patent application - don’t worry so much about telling your neighbors or family about your invention. It’s very unlikely it will backfire and void your patent. Instead, worry about disclosing your invention at trade shows and in publications. He made a joke that even when he tries to help some inventors, they refuse to tell him their product for this unreasonable fear. They’re afraid to tell the US Patent Commissioner, a government employee trying to help!
• Says google patent search okay, but gives inconsistent results compared to USPTO patent search.
• You can patent a use of a product. For example, Rogaine started out as a medicine to reduce blood pressure, but another person got a patent on its ability to grow hair on bald heads. Bald men of the world rejoice
• Future changes at the Patent office: more congressional oversight, peer to patent public reviews of prior art, talking to industry leaders about what they want, encouraged sharing between various patent offices in Europe, Canada, Japan, etc.

Those are the highlights. Be sure to listen to Commissioner Doll’s, at times humorous, keynote speech. You can also listen to the Invention Contest Winners on StartupStory.com.

Bryan Daigle

Last weekend we headed down the road to Austin for the 2007 Maker Faire. This was the first time Make Magazine & O’Reilly Media was doing the show in Austin, and they expected 25k attendees. Inventors, hobbyists, garage tinkerers, robots, and craft makers displayed all their stuff. Everything from art cars, to pedal powered fair rides, to a life size mouse trap, to ping pong ball shooting robots & more. We’ve posted all the Maker Faire videos on our site so you can get a sense of what the Maker Faire all about.

Go see more of our Maker Faire videos of ping pong ball shooting robots, liquid nitrogen ice cream, art cars, Diet Coke mixed with Mentos, and life sized mousetraps.

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