What a great idea!

Thanks to Planet Eureka!, area inventors have the chance to put their products on the fast track in a national forum.

Planet Eureka! is a program of the U.S. Department of Commerce that helps business leaders find and filter innovations while also helping inventors connect to resources and potential partners in manufacturing and business development.

"The Department of Commerce wants an inventory of new innovations so that companies that are hurting right now can look at this and say, 'Wow! I can make this and I have a distribution channel for this,'" Ken Bloemer, executive director of Planet Eureka!, explained.

When the Edison Inventors Association and the Small Business Development Center at Florida Gulf Coast University hosted a Planet Eureka! workshop recently, the session proved to be windfall for seasoned inventors and newbies alike.

As soon as rookie inventor Pat Purnell, president of CNP Construction in Naples, learned of the workshop the day it was taking place, he jumped in his car and headed to FGCU's Lutgert Hall. "It was fantastic," he said.

www.planeteureka.org In addition to the valuable tips and advice gleaned from Mr. Bloemer about Planet Eureka!, Mr. Purnell said he was thrilled to find out about the EIA. "I had no idea that they even existed, so for me, that's another good thing that came out of it," he said about the local inventors association.

Mr. Purnell has inventions in the pre-patent stage and isn't ready to talk about them.

Several people who attended the forum already have several patents under their belts.

Cathy Solich has invented several products applicable to the craft trade and is

always interested in feedback. Her View Stick, Running Stitch Organizer and Pattern Organizer have been picked up by several trade publications. Her products are advertised in Miles Kimball catalogs, sold at Wal-Mart and JoAnn Fabrics stores and have been considered by Office Depot. She's always thinking about new applications for her products.

Ms. Solich is also a board member of EIA. She first heard about Planet Eureka! via a press release that was e-mailed to the association. Intrigued, she immediately called the SBDC to inquire about the possibility of holding a workshop for local inventors at FGCU.

BLOEMER Maintaing the innovation edge

Planet Eureka! is actually a Web site, www.planeteureka.org, that works with approximately 1,600 Manufacturing Extension Partnerships around the country within the framework of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It's also the home of the USA National Innovation Marketplace.

One of the key attractions of the Planet Eureka! workshop is an offer to turn ideas into proposals that will be published on www.planeteureka.org for six months.

"When I saw that press release, I knew it was a great opportunity for inventors in our backyard," Ms. Solich said. "One of the keys to success is to clearly articulate your idea in a language that excites buyers, licensors, distributors, manufacturers, investors and the like."

Planet Eureka! is one of numerous economy. For many years, the bulk of patents submitted to the U.S. Patent Trademark Office have come from outside the United States. It wasn't always that way.

LiftAlone Back when Thomas Edison was busy submitting patents — he is credited with holding 1,093 patents and is the only person in our country ever to have a patent granted every year for 65 consecutive years, 1868 to 1933 — the U.S. was leading the way.

"I am very concerned about the trend," said Mr. Bloemer of Planet Eureka! "China wants to own the market. They don't want to just be our low-cost producer. They are graduating three times as many engineers as we are every year.

"Nothing against China, but if we don't keep our innovation edge, we're toast."

Giving inventors a start

Many of the innovations published on www.planeteureka.org have found a marketplace, according to Mr. Bloemer. One is Rock Rebar, a rebar product made from volcanic rock that weighs 75 percent less than steel, is 2.5 times stronger than steel, is cheaper to ship than steel and does not corrode.

"Our goal is to get new businesses out and moving and also to jumpstart existing businesses," Mr. Bloemer explained. "There's incredible interest," he said, adding www.planeteureka.org has had 5 million hits since April.

Always interested in helping entrepreneurs and small businesses, the SBDC was more than happy to provide a setting for the recent forum.

"We've had a long relationship with the Edison Inventors over the last 15 years and have always done whatever we could to help their members," said Dan Regelski, executive director SBDC. "I cannot say enough about that organization and what they've been able to accomplish. I'd like to make this an annual event for the inventors of Southwest Florida."

Estero resident Mark Pasek became one of the chosen earlier in the year, just as www.planeteureka.org was being launched at an inventors seminar in Orlando.

Mr. Pasek, an EIA member, invented LiftAlone, a product that enables an individual to easily install anything — from sheetrock to chandeliers — overhead. Thanks to encouragement from Planet Eureka!'s founder, Doug Hall, LiftAlone was demonstrated on ABC's "Nightline" in August. That brief program on innovation put Mr. Pasek in touch with many interested parties, and he's now negotiating with manufacturers.

"They've done so much for me so far," he said. "This is a great presentation. I love going to anything to do with innovation and inventions to get ideas about marketing and manufacturing. That's what this was."

Creativity in SW Florida

With inventing, it's all about taking ideas to the next level. And inventors have great inspiration in Southwest Florida.

The EIA meets every third Wednesday of the month in the Edison & Ford Winter Estates Museum in Fort Myers. Since 1992, an ever-growing group meets to discuss everything from patents to marketing. Members include inventors, investors, patent agents, patent attorneys, CAD designers and even those with relationships to foreign manufacturers. For more information about the association, visit www.edisoninventors. org.

Based on the level of enthusiasm generated by the workshop at FGCU, Mr. Bloemer said he might be back before another year goes by. "I will come back in a heartbeat as soon as they can put 30 to 40 inventors in a room together again," he said. "This is the key thing — jobs and wealth for the United States of America. That what the USA National Innovation Marketplace and Planet Eureka! are all about."