by Michael Collins, CEO of Big Idea Group and author of “The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone.”

When the Hunt criteria and prizes are agreed upon by the client, we announce the Hunt to the inventor community. Then we wait while thousands of inventors from across the country (and some from across the globe) start dreaming up ideas and solutions. In the early days of running these innovation contests, I sometimes feared we would not receive many submissions or that the ideas would not be worth showing to the client. I have since learned to trust the inventors in the Big Idea Group network who never fail to impress me with their creativity and effort. Those who do particularly well, however, tend to do the following:

1. Follow the rules. One of the primary benefits of Open Innovation is that you have a client telling you exactly what they want—and are ready to buy. To make the most of that opportunity, follow the guidelines as closely as possible. Now I recognize that sometimes a good idea fits most, but not all of the requirements given. That is okay. We still want to see those ideas. But submitting something totally off course, like fishing gear to a garden tools Hunt, for example, is not going to work. (If you have a great idea that does not fit a Hunt, schedule time at one of our Big Idea Group Roadshows instead.)
2. Do your homework. Just as you would with an invention of your own, look in stores and look online to see if your idea is already out there. One tip for online research is to put the product benefits into your keyword search criteria. For example, if you search for Racquet Smackit, the name of your new tennis teaching tool, you probably will not find a match. But if you look for keywords describing your idea such as racquet, slice, training, you will find a few products with similar descriptions already on the market.
3. Look for prior art. You do not need to hire someone to do an exhaustive patent or trademark search, but a layman’s online search for prior art is recommended. If you find something similar but are not sure whether or not your concept infringes on the intellectual property, make a note of it in your submission and we’ll take a look at it ourselves.
4. Create a visual. Again, you do not have to spend a lot of money to get your idea professionally rendered, but a visual image created with Photoshop, clip art, or a picture of your popsicle stick prototype will go a long way towards helping us understand what your idea is. When we are sitting in front of stack of submissions to review, those with pictures or sketches are much easier to digest.
5. Give it to me in 10 seconds or less. Although in our sample submissions, we ask for marketing ideas, competitive products, and a variety of other specifications that may take several pages for you to explain, those details simply help us dig deeper once we have an understanding of what your basic product concept is. A quick sell sheet on top of the submission with a picture and a list of benefits is a tremendous asset in helping us quickly assess the viability of your idea.

Although we get hundreds of submissions for each Hunt, we do read through each and every one of them. Following these guidelines will help you create a more memorable presentation and help us to quickly assess the overall potential of your idea.