Jackson Inventors Network

The Jackson Inventors Network (JIN) is on the move Aug. 23, with a new location: The historic Jackson Carnegie Library, 244 W. Michigan Ave, Jackson, Mi. This new location will also feature another first: An inventor, Patrick Stack, will talk, with his patent attorney, Vincent Re, about the experiences with the process, issues, and hurdles commercializing the product.

Directions to the library:

From Cooper/Bus. 127: Turn West on W. Louis Glick (before RR tracks) Go 4 lights to Blackstone turn Left South two blocks to Michigan Ave. turn left and park.

Program

6:00 to 6:30 – Meet & Greet

6:30 to 7:30 – Program/Speaker

7:30 to 8:30 – Intense Networking

Consumers Energy’s Strategic Innovation is pleased to introduce with the support of Spring Arbor University SpringBoard, our inaugural idea pitch competition!

We’re inviting innovators, budding entrepreneurs and anyone with a great idea to come and pitch it to an audience and panel of judges. Showcase your creativity and business savvy.

All are welcome to attend as audience members (with registration). Come hear the next big idea and network with innovation thought leaders!

The event will be on Wednesday, Aug. 24, at the Consumers Energy Innovation Center from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

EVENT SUMMARY
What: Strategic Innovation SpringBoard Pitch Night
When: August 24^th from 6 – 8 p.m.
Where: Consumers Energy Innovation Center, 165 W Michigan Ave., Jackson, MI 49201
Who: Anyone 16 and up can compete. Submission Period: July 18^th, 2016- August 1^st, 2016; Attendance is free and all are welcome with an Eventbrite registration – visit the Eventbrite website to apply or RSVP!

Gary Pageau

Gary Pageau is on the cutting edge of marketing your idea or product. His background in marketing, name recognition, and getting visibility in this new era of communications is a vital and needed subject for our inventors and entrepreneurs.

Pageau is the principal of InfoCircle LLC, a marketing communications company. For 25 years, he was with PMA International, serving as Publisher, Content Development & strategic Initiatives. His responsibilities included overseeing the associations editorial depart., marketing research unit, education & corporate relations depart.

Pageau will be using the Jackson Inventors group as a group that needs to revisit their image, who they are missing because of changes in communication tools. Are we missing a generation?

• 6:00-6:30pm Registration
• 6:30-7: 30pm Program
• 7:30-8:30pm Networking
• Jackson Maker Space (jacksonmakerspace.org) 543 E. Washington Ave. Jackson, MI 49203

Jack Ahrens

Spring is here school almost out and inventors are moving with their ideas!

Don’t miss this months meeting on May 24, where we have Jack Ahren from Tgap guiding us in our entrepreneur business development with “Governance the Foundation of a Successful business.” Let Ahrens help you avoid the pit falls many start-ups get into. This is good info you will not get anywhere else so don’t miss this meeting.

Ahrens is a founding General Partner of TGap Venture Capital Funds, headquartered in Kalamazoo, a Midwest focused venture capital fund that has raised over $46 million. He has been a venture capitalist since 1979; 1st as President of United Capital Corporation of Illinois (an SBIC), since 1983 as a General Partner of Pathfinder Venture Capital Funds I,II,III. Prior to that he had 7 years of experience in bank trust investments & operations. He has served on many Boards during his career including Afmedica, Inc., Central Data, Inc., Micro Business Applications, Inc., MedVantx, Inc, NeoChord, Inc., Regenesis Biomedical & Vector General, Inc. & he is the Chairman of the Great Lakes Entrepreneur Quest.

Location: Jackson Maker Space
543 E. Washington Ave.
Jackson, MI 49203

Registration 6:00 to 6:30

Program 6:30 to 7:30

Networking 7:30 to 8:30

From Cooper/Bus. 127: Turn East on E. Washington (@ Comtronics bldg.) Go ~1/8 mi. to Park Pl. Turn South on Park Pl. and park in rear of building.
From E. Michigan Ave.: Turn South on S. East Ave. (@ Allegiance Hospital). Go ~1/4 mi. to E. Washington. Take E. Washington West ~400 ft. to Park Pl. Turn South on Park Pl. and park in rear of building.
Handicap Accessible.

Neil Sheridan

Thousands of early stage companies fail because predictable challenges in bringing their innovations to market are poorly anticipated and addressed by overwhelmed founders. This interactive session introduces how to manage common growth issues, stakeholder expectations, and strategic planning. For many, that includes finding and trusting professional managers to scale the business.

At this month’s JIN meeting on April 26, Neil Sheridan will lead us in a discussion about the changing role of founder, recruiting a complementary team, performing realistic self-assessments, engaging the board, identifying advisors, and developing your company’s culture.

Neil Sheridan is CEO and founder of SVPI, LLC. SVPI assists corporations, small and medium-sized businesses and large non-profit clients with strategy and performance improvement initiatives. Neil has worked with hundreds of companies on innovation management, marketing, financial management, team recruitment, selling and funding issues.
Neil can be reached at: ns@svpi.com

Program Agenda:

 6:00-6:30pm Registration
 6:30-7:30pm Program
 7:30-8:30pm Networking

Location:

Jackson Makerspace 543 E. Washington Ave. Jackson, MI 49203

Screenshot 2016-03-21 22.54.33 Join the JIN faithful March 22 to hear from two local inventors who are following through on their dreams. Each guest speaker will share their personal story from concept to market.

Story#1 – Fan Zone Furniture.
Bill Jewell decided to merge his love for college sports with his desire to start a business. Fan ZoneTM Furniture was born — a family owned company built upon old fashioned values. Bill’s business, located in Jackson, provides spirited high quality collegiate furniture at affordable prices, allowing every fan of collegiate sports to add some team spirit to their home décor or to properly furnish the man cave.

Story #2 – Set-N-Go Trapper.
Perry Watkins has been a trapper for 40 years. About 5 years ago Perry developed and began marketing the Set-n-Go TrapperTM … a stabilizer that holds body grip animal traps, resulting in a much higher success/catch ratio. Perry recently expanded out of the niche fur- trapping sector to enter the pest control market, by developing a Complete Groundhog Removal System. Perry’s latest kit is marketed locally for the DIY home owner and farmer.

Meeting date March 22nd
Meet & greet 6:00PM
Speaker starts 6:30PM sharp
Networking 7:30PM ish till as long as you need

Meeting @ the Jackson Make Space 543 E. Washington, Jackson MI

Direction: From I-94 take the Cooper street exit go south on Cooper to Washington (it is the 1st light after the railroad tracks) turn left (east) go to park street (2nd road from left side) turn right then turn right into the back drive (you enter the makerspace in the rear of the building) enter the 1st door there is a makerspace sign.

Get out of the February blues and join us for a best of the best look at prototyping and what you need to get your input for if your product will sell. Randall Easterling is a fantastic artist and prototyper using commonly available materials and you can do it techniques.

Meeting date   Feb 23rd
Meet & greet     6:00PM
Speaker starts 6:30PM sharp
Networking       7:30PM ish till as long as you needMeeting @ the Jackson Make Space 543 E. Washington, Jackson MI

Also, Take a tour of the prototype shop the makerspace was developed for. Yes you can have access to the tools you need to make your prototype!

This month we are doing something different. The MiQuest is having the ACE16 event on Jan. 26, which is our planned meeting day. ACE16 is an event that all of our inventors should go to it is a source of help we can not provide for developing a new business or product.

The time for the event is from 12 noon to 6:30 p.m. The cost is $25

MiQuest ACE16 event is at the Westin Southfield, 1500 Towne Center Drive, Southfield, MI 48075

Lawrence Tech is sponsoring it this year which is another positive!

Michigan Inventors Coalition, Grand Rapids Inventors Network, & Jackson Inventors Network are offering a lotto to cover the cost for the first six people that need help the cover the event cost.

To apply for the entry fee send an email to johndhopkins1@gmail.com

This month, JIN welcomes Matt Stoner and Jeff Weed to share their entrepreneurial story and their journey. Stoner and Weed are not your typical inventors, and neither had prior experience in food creation. Nevertheless, over the past year, they have collaboratively developed and launched a tasty new paradigm in the frozen-dessert category: “Goodphoria.”

What led them to create a new food? How did they conduct R&D? What hurdles did they face and how did they overcome them? How are they marketing their product? What’s next for them and their emerging new business? We hope you are able to join the many other inventors and entrepreneurs of the JIN community for this month’s insightful presentation.

Program Agenda

6:00-6:30 pm Registration
6:30-7:30 pm Program
7:30-8:30 pm Networking

Location:
 Jackson Maker Space, 543 E. Washington Ave. Jackson, MI 49203

Directions:
 From Cooper/Bus. 127: Turn East on E. Washington (@ Comtronics bldg.) Go ~1/8 mi. to Park Pl. Turn South on Park Pl. and park in rear of building.
 From E. Michigan Ave.: Turn South on S. East Ave. (@ Allegiance Hospital). Go ~1/4 mi. to E. Washington. Take E. Washington West ~400 ft. to Park Pl. Turn South on Park Pl. and park in rear of building.

How one Jackson-area business analyzes how/if to invest in new products, inventions, and other businesses

David Shirkey

The ambition of some inventors is to let an established, reputable company take their product idea to market. But may come as a surprise to some naïve inventors, but the world is not likely to beat a path to your door even if you invent the next-generation mousetrap. (Those who do come knocking are more likely than not to be disreputable.) In reality, every inventor aspiring to partner with an honest company needs to be able convince the company their innovative idea is worth the risk and effort needed to take it to market.

This month, JIN is honored to have David Shirkey as our featured speaker. Sharkey is the CFO at Orbitform, a Jackson manufacturer of assembly and fastening machines at its Oct. 27 meeting. Among his various roles, he is responsible for analyzing how/if the company should invest in new products, ideas, and new business opportunities.

Program Agenda

6:00-6:30 pm Registration
6:30-7:30 pm Program
7:30-8:30 pm Networking

Location

Jackson Maker Space
543 E. Washington Ave.
Jackson, MI 49203

Directions

From Cooper/Bus. 127: Turn East on E. Washington (@ Comtronics bldg.) Go ~1/8 mi. to Park Pl. Turn South on Park Pl. and park in rear of building.

From E. Michigan Ave.: Turn South on S. East Ave. (@ Allegiance Hospital). Go ~1/4 mi. to E. Washington. Take E. Washington West ~400 ft. to Park Pl. Turn South on Park Pl. and park in rear of building.

Handicap Accessible.

Cost

Members*: $45 Annual membership (Details here)
Non-Members: $5 at the door

August 23 JIN meeting on patent law to be held at Jackson Carnegie Library

Consumers Energy’s Strategic Innovation to launch SpringBoard

Remaking Your Brand – How and Why

May JIN meeting features return of Jack Ahren

April JIN meeting: Accelerating Growth: Challenges and Strategies for Your Innovation Company

2 Stories from the Trenches featured at March 22 meeting

Prototyping is topic of Feb. 23 JIN meeting

Big change for January meeting

November meeting topic: Invention for “foodies”

Should We Give It A Shot?

How one Jackson-area business analyzes how/if to invest in new products, inventions, and other businesses

Program Agenda

Location

Directions

Cost