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November 21, 2005

The Wait

OK, the waiting was kind of a drag, but it was also kind of fun to talk to all the people and hear about their ideas -- for about the first 30 seconds in each case, at least. One of the things I learned from this experience is that invention ideas are a lot like dreams: everyone loves to talk about their own, and no one really wants to hear other people's.

I'm going to keep my descriptions of the inventions I was told about at the hotel intentionally vague out of respect for their inventors. At the beginning of the day, most were closed lipped about their inventions, holding their notebooks and application forms close to their chest, lugging large suitcases, duct-taped bags with mysterious shapes, and there were big signs advising us not to talk to anyone other than the judges about our ideas or risk losing our patentability. But by the end, we were like soldiers in the same trench and people were a little TOO willing to share. Anyway, here are some of the categories of inventions I saw:

• board games
• improved bed-making technologies
• a device to make drinking water on your bike easier and a bike-based game
• the stadium roll (I told that guy he should get a restaurant to make a sushi roll named after his product)
• an exercise system for children
• a CD to help you discipline your children
• an improved method for attaching tools to a ladder
• something involving a pony
• something involving a small poodle, matching bright orange jumpsuits, and a beanie hat

And a bunch of others I'm forgetting.

Since we were shuttled around according to our numbers, we developed a little line-based waiting cadre that included some of the more boisterous people I met at the auditions. People in our group began playing poker and some form of group hangman to occupy their time, and making Burger King and Starbucks runs for each other. For a bunch of inventors, it was incredibly social.

By the time the woman right before me went in at 7:00 I was kind of giddy. We were among maybe the last 50 people there. People in our group had gotten in the habit of applauding and making a big fuss when someone was called in and I continued it when she went in: "YAAAAYYY! You're the world's greatest inventor!!!" I hollered and she actually kind of perked up and thanked me. Then she took a half hour in the juding room and I was kind of sorry I�d said anything. We discovered earlier that we could see what was going on in the rooms by peeking through the spy holes in the doors: She had candles burning and they�d given her a diet Coke.

I was finally let in. Walking in with me was some kind of staffer and the judges let him know how disappointed they were that they hadn�t gotten to judge the pony act.

I faced four judges, two ladies and two gentlemen. I have no idea what they did or who they were -- I was very curious but there was no time for chit chat!! However, we had been told at one point that the panels would include TV producers and patent attorneys. In retrospect, I think one of them may have been Pamela Riddle.

So then I launched into my spiel. Here are the pitches I gave � we were given 2 minutes total to make our pitch, and I think I came in pretty close (drum roll please):

Next ... Not Pitched -- Arne's iFlirt

Posted by mary at November 21, 2005 6:47 PM

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