-- "Center for Emerging Technologies - St. Louis, Missouri" --

-- "Licensing Executives, USA and Canada"
-- "LES - St. Louis Chapter"

-- -- HOW THEY STARTED --

-- "Pay strict attention to one important piece of information that seems to slip by in a heartbeat, WHERE some of these great innovators learned their craft and made their connections. The biggest companies, like HP and Apple, were started in a garage.

-- Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard studied electrical engineering at MIT and Stanford University. A professor from the latter gave them the lead to Litton Engineering where they got access to machinery they could not afford themselves. Dave also worked for GE.

-- Steve Jobs worked for Atari and Steve Wozniak worked for (who else) Hewlett Packard."]
-- Submitted by, Inventors Society of South Florida
Check it out at
http://www.ThisAmericanLife.org/radio-archives 383: Origin Story

-- -- Making Lemonade in the Current Economy --

-- As the old saying goes ... "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."

-- A recession provides you, as a business owner, an opportunity to look at your company and truly evaluate what you have. Especially now when sales are decreasing, it is the time to look at your marketing plan and see if it is current.

-- Fear is not an option.

-- Studies at Penn State and the University of Texas have shown companies that maintain their marketing budgets tend to increase market share and experience growth at the end of the recession. Consumers want reassurance in difficult times and the perception your company is doing well creates that consumer assurance and increases your market share.

-- So, how do you create or refine your marketing plan?

-- The plan should follow some basic rules. Be SMART:

- Strategy

- Maintain marketing spending

- Allocate the budget

- Research the consumer

-- Target the consumer

-- Have a strategic plan to acquire new customers, to entice existing customers to spend more and persuade more customers to shop more frequently. To accomplish these goals you must first have a product or service the public or a segment of the public needs or wants. Second, make sure your pricing strategy matches the targets audience's mind set by testing new discounts, having sales and promoting the events to your audience. Pricing is a touchy issue but a company can offer many incentives for a consumer to come in and buy.

-- Maintain marketing spending is the second strategy.

-- Now is not the time to reduce marketing spending. Let your competitors do that. Let them be forgotten. During the Great Depression Proctor and Gamble promoted Ivory Soap, beating out the competition. At the end of the Depression, Ivory Soap was still on the shelves while much of the competition was gone.

{-- In the Great Depression of 1929, one out of four Americans were out of work.
-- In the Great Recession of 2009, one out of ten Americans were out of work!}

-- Third, allocate the budget.

-- Do not put all your apples in one form of the marketing budget. All of your hard-earned money should not be spent on advertising or sales. Use a mix to reach the target consumer and create a way to track the marketing to see which part of the mix gives more bang for the buck.

-- Next is researching the consumer.

-- This is the biggest problem for most small businesses-they do not know their customers. Research on the Web to discover the characteristics of your typical customer and to answer some of the basic questions. Do they come from a specific region? Is the market growing, stable or trendy? What is the size of the market in revenue and customers? What do customers expect from your product or service? How much are they willing to pay? What is your advantage over the competition?

-- Targeting the consumer is critical when money is tight.

-- After doing the research and determining the type of consumer who will purchase your product or service, how do you communicate your message? Find out what consumers read, where they live and where they shop. What radio, TV and Web sites do they visit? Only spend your marketing dollars where it will have the greatest effect. Again be sure to target the consumer, who fits your profile. Reaching others will be a wasted effort.

-- Companies that survived the Great Depression are those that knew the consumer, believed in their product and charged ahead. Attitude is everything. Fear is not an option. There are many sources to help you. Please contact your local University of Missouri Extension county office, the nearest Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Center, SCORE, or your local college or library for assistance.

- Authored by: Charles Holland, MU
- Extension business development specialist, Monroe County SBTDC
- Updated 8/17/09 -- This story was featured in the August 2009 newsletter ---> >

-- MO SBDC main | Services | Centers and Staff | Seminars | Counseling Success and Impact | Partners -- Missouri Small Business & Technology Development Centers ... your success is our business
-- Friday, September 04, 2009

To: Director@inventorsconnection.org
From: Dreamovations@aol.com
Subject: New Pixar Book/Keynote
Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 1:34 PM

Dear Mr. Scheinkman:

-- Beginning in late fall, we will be offering a new keynote by internationally acclaimed business expert and speaker Bill Capodagli -- Innovate The Pixar Way: Lessons from a Corporate Playground -- based upon his upcoming book of the same title.

-- Innovate The Pixar Way describes how Pixar has created a unique culture of creative collaboration and presents methods and tools to adapt the Pixar principles in any environment. Bill's best-selling book, The Disney Way, was cited by Fortune magazine as "so useful, you may whistle while you work."

-- Bill's powerful and timely presentations are based upon the success principles that have catapulted Disney and Pixar to "legendary culture" status.

-- Bill Capodagli's keynote topics for fall 2009 are as follows:

- Innovate The Pixar Way
- Leadership The Disney Way
- Customer Service The Disney Way
- If Walt Ran Your Organization!

-- I look forward to an opportunity to work with you to bring Bill Capodagli to your esteemed audience.

-- Best regards,

Marie Hoffman, Director of Events

-- Capodagli Jackson Consulting is an independent company dedicated to the preservation and implementation of Walt Disney's original success principles featured in our best-selling book, The Disney Way. Cited by Fortune magazine as "so useful, you may whistle while you work." and a BEST BUSINESS BOOK

-- -- "DISNEY INSTITUTE - MICKEY'S TEN COMMANDMENTS" --

www.capojac.com; 800-238-9958

-- -- You should know that the U.S. Government publishes a quarterly list of needed products requiring inventive effort. Write to the U.S. Small Business Administration:
-- U.S. Small Business Administration
-- Office of Innovation and Technology,
-- SBIR
-- 1441 L Street N.W.
-- Washington, D.C. 20416

-- Ask to be put on the list to receive its Quarterly Solicitation Announcements.

To: dayjobIASL@Webtv.net
From: Fritz Grupe
Subject: 2009 National SBIR Conference
Date: Sunday, May 3, 2009 3:57 PM

An Alert for Innovators and Inventors

2009 National SBIR Conference

“Re-Energizing America”

November 2-5, 2009

The 2009 National SBIR Conference is an ideal opportunity for high technology, start-up companies to find out how to take advantage of the $2.3B available from the government’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs - the largest source of funding for pioneering business ideas. This exciting conference brings a national audience of dynamic, R&D-focused small businesses and entrepreneurs, university faculty, primary and medium sized contractors and potential collaborators into direct contact with the representatives of eleven federal agencies providing SBIR/STTR funding. The conference takes place in John Ascuaga's Nugget in Sparks, Nevada from November 2 – 5, 2009. It is the only such conference in 2009 and is the first such conference in the West for many years.

Our agenda provides access to over 40 presenters including SBIR/STTR Program Managers from the eleven participating federal agencies (the units within the Dept. Of Defense, Health and Human Services, the Dept. of Energy, the Dept. of Commerce, the Dept. of Education, the Dept. of Transportation, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Dept. of Homeland Security, and the Dept. of Agriculture), proposal preparation experts, business and commercialization specialists, follow-on investors and contracting companies that have achieved success in SBIR/STTR funding. Optional pre-and post-conference sessions and speed networking sessions extend the value of this conference.

This is an ideal opportunity for inventors to come in contact with these federal agencies noted and with large and small, high tech companies interested in new ideas. Please let your members know by posting the dates of the conference on your events calendar. Your members can earn more about the conference at: http://www.unr.edu/sbir-sttr2009/index.html

For additional information contact: Dr. Fritz Grupe, Conference Coordinator, Business Services Group, University of Nevada, Reno, MS 32, Reno, Nevada, 89557 (775-813-7407 or fritz@unr.edu).

-- "Grants.gov - WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR A GRANT" --

To: dayjobIASL@webtv.net
From: Fritz Grupe
Subject: 2009 National SBIR Conference Drawing Nearer
Date: Monday, August 3, 2009 9:57 PM

Shrinking angel fund investments. Decreasing venture capital support. Limited family and friends savings to draw on. How is one to ramp up a start up company with innovative but unproven technologies?

Each year more than $2.3 billion in grants and contracts are awarded by eleven federal agencies' participating in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs.

Through these competitive programs, small businesses can receive up to $100,000 for feasibility research in Phase I and up to $750,000 for prototype development in Phase II.

Some of the participating agencies provide additional financial and management assistance subsequent to Phase II.

Although the competition for this support is stiff – approximately 1 in 10 proposals are funded in Phase I, SBIR and STTR remain as the largest startup fund in the United States.

In order to compete effectively, many entrepreneurs need help in learning about this important program. How can companies find out about the priorities, the varying deadlines and the guidelines for getting into the fray?

The Nevada Small Business Development Center is hosting the 2009 National SBIR / Small Business Technology Transfer Program Conference from November 2 through 5, 2009 in Sparks, Nevada. The conference is supported by the 11 federal agencies, all of which will have representatives available to talk to innovators about their product ideas in one-on-one sessions and in general sessions.

In addition, it is expected that another 30 or more prime contractors, SBIR consultants, and other companies will be exhibiting and providing attendees with information on how to proceed.

Separate speed networking sessions enable attendees to interact with other innovative people in three areas of interest: medicine and agriculture, science and defense, and energy and the environment. This enables innovators to meet potential customers and business partners.

The conference includes numerous sessions on related topics including intellectual property protection, proposal writing hints, commercialization, business planning and other sources of funding than these two programs.

Another interesting feature is the poster showcase at a 1 - ? hour reception. This is an ideal and very economical opportunity for conference attendees to present their products, services, and software to a broad audience. Virtually all attendees enjoy the reception and visit the companies that display there.

Further information on the conference is available at www.unr.edu/sbir-sttr2009.

-- -- INVENTORS' RESOURCES? -- --

-- "Edith G. Tolchin - Edie specializes in inventions of textiles and sewn-items, baby & fashion accessories, arts & crafts, and unique household articles."

-- -- From our Controversial Department: -->
"How do you stop monkeys from inventing?" - You can't!
-- Darwin said, "It's in their blood." ;-)
-- "Chimpanzee Cultures" --

-- -- Footnote: "Charles Darwin, in his 1871 book Decent of Man, had suggested that because our closest evolutionary relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, live in Africa, the earliest humans probably once lived there too."

-- "Behind the Controversy: How Evolution Works" --
-- "Top 10 Missing Links | LiveScience" --

-- "A Chronicle of Enterprising Demises Honoring those who improve the species...by accidentally removing themselves from it!" --

-- It's a fact that animals have used tools which they have invented.
-- -- Humans, because they can, have created many "Chindogu." :-)

-- "American Consumer Shows" --

-- "Google testing home electricity use software" --

--> --> "I.R.S. and the Inventor" --

-- There is so much to learn. -- You had better come to our meetings. -->

-- "Ordinary objects, super uses - STLtoday.com" --

-- "Top Nine Reasons Computers Must Be Female" -- www.Intelligentx.com
1. Picky, picky, picky.
2. They hear what you say, but not what you mean.
3. Beauty is only shell deep.
4. When you ask what is wrong, they say "nothing."
5. Can produce incorrect results with alarming speed.
6. Always turning simple statement into big productions.
7. Small talk is important.
8. You do the same thing for years, and suddenly it's wrong.
9. They make you take the garbage out. ;-))

-- "Thirty years ago a computer had a shelf life of seven years." -- "Today, hardware is obsolete after seven months and software has seven weeks before a newer product has the market." -- Smithsonian, August 2001, page 35 -- --> Software and Supplies For That "Old Computer"

-- "Here's looking at you, kid." -- Humphrey Bogart, "Casablanca" -- Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals because he hated wearing two pair of glasses. -- He invented suspenders to keep his pants up ;-))

-- Benjamin Franklin favored the "American Turkey" as our Nation's symbol. He voted against the Bald Eagle because it was too agressive and not befitting our passive heritage.

James E. White Inventor, Marketer, and Author of "Will It Sell? How to Determine If Your Invention Is Profitably Marketable (Before Wasting Money on a Patent)" Info Sites:
www.willitsell.com
www.inventorhome.com,
www.idearights.com
www.taletyano.com
www.booksforinventors.com
________________________________________________________

LETTER OF AGREEMENT FOR INVENTION OWNER MAKING DISCLOSURE

________________________________

______________________________

___________________________

Dear _____________________:

We are in possession of information relating to our:

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________ (hereinafter referred to as "the subject matter") which we consider confidential.

We understand that you are willing to accept such information from us for purposes of evaluation and determination of your possible interest therein. You agree to receive such information from us during the term of this Agreement on the following basis:

1. Under this Agreement, you will hold in confidence any and all technical information on the subject matter disclosed to you by us, in writing and marked "Confidential" except:
a. information which at the time of disclosure is in the public domain;
b. information which, after disclosure, becomes part of the public domain by publication or otherwise, except by breach of this Agreement by you;
c. information which you can establish by competent proof was in your possession at the time of disclosure by us and was not acquired, directly or indirectly, from us; and,
d. information which you receive from a third party; provided, however, that such information was not obtained by said third party, directly or indirectly, from us.

2. You agree that you will not use the technical information relating to the subject matter, which you are required hereunder to keep confidential, for any purpose other than the aforesaid evaluation and determination of interest, without first entering into an agreement with us covering the use thereof.

3. Your obligation under this Agreement shall expire on the fifth anniversary of the date thereof. We agree that, after said fifth anniversary, we will make no claim against you or any of your subsidiaries with respect to this Agreement, except for patent infringement.

If you agree to the foregoing, kindly indicate your acceptance thereof and assent thereto by signing and dating the duplicate copy of this letter at the space provided for below, returning such signed copy to us. We will then proceed to disclose to you our information relating to the subject matter.

Very truly yours,

By: ___________________________________________

ACCEPTED AND AGREED TO:

Company:

_______________________________________________

__________________________________

By:
___________________________________________

Title: __________________________________