Contests

If you've had product concepts simmering on your mind's back burner, but didn't have the impetus or the money to start developing them, here's your chance to get them going.  Edison Nation has partnered with some of the best direct response firms in the country to find the best innovative products for 'As Seen On TV Innovative Product Search.

To celebrate the highly anticipated launch of its new Kentucky Grilled Chicken, fast food chain KFC was giving away gratis pieces of grilled chicken to customers. To help promote the offer Oprah Winfrey added her celebrity heft in marketing the offer. Usually whenever the Big "O" gets involved, the world listens. Well, in this case, KFC's innovative viral campaign came to a crashing halt when the chicken-lickin' demand exceeded its paltry poultry supply.

Jordan Knight promised to release the true meaning of "tink!" and has announced the winner of the New Kids on the Block's NYC Today Show contest. Virally, Jordan's one-word tweet of "tink!" has exploded onto the Twitterverse into a global frenzy exciting a fan base who just can't get enough! From tens of thousands tweets to tink! cartoons, tink! products and even an Ashton Kutcher Platinum Tweet Award, tink! has taken on a life of its own.

In an effort to capitalize on the buzz created by "tink!" Jordan Knight and other members of the New Kids on the Block band will be flying two "contest winning"  fans to NYC. The viral social media experiment originally initiated by Jordan Knight on Twitter appears to have formulated a life of its own as NKOTB fans have been tweeting themselves silly trying to figure out just what tink! means.

LG Mobile Phones, Autodesk®, and crowdSPRING are partnering to sponsor the Design The Future competition searching for the mobile phone of the future.  And, guess what?  They welcome submissions from novices and even give you the tools you need to win.

Filming is almost complete for the new 5-week reality TV show, Stars Of Science, in which 16 inventors from the Arab world will strutt their stuff, competing for best invention and a $300,000 cash prize. Sponsored by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, the format is not too similar to the American Inventor series, and Simon Cowell does not appear to be involved in this production.

A talented, 15-year-old Russian orphan has won the competition to design the space mission emblem that is certain to go down in space travel history. Read on for more information about this very special contest and its extraordinary winner.

What's a city to do when it creates 500,000 tons of electronic waste a year? That's the amount of e-waste projected in New York City for  2010, the year the Big Apple will have a dedicated waste bin - the 4th Bin -- specifically for all the obsolete or broken electronics... the computers, DVD players, tape players, TVs, even batteries... all the stuff New Yorkers and everyone else has been throwing in the trash that ends up as toxic waste, leeching into the soil and poisoning the underground water.

Edison Nation announced today that the WD-40® Company is challenging inventors to come up with a new delivery system for the product's many uses and to create new product concepts that have wide-reaching applicability and purpose, like WD-40. Put your thinking caps on, these tasks are both difficult; your solutions must be innovative and patentable.

 

Ophir Vermesh today became the first winner of the $30,000 Lemelson-Caltech Student Prize for his work in developing the Integrated Blood-Barcode Chip (IBBC), as member of a team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Vermesh is a graduate student in chemistry at Caltech.

Ladies, get your inventive minds in gear; a large company is actually asking you for your ideas! That's right. Today Edison Nation announced a new invention contest sponsored by Bed, Bath, and Beyond (B³) that calls for product ideas to retail in its stores. This 'for women only' invention contest is scheduled concomitant with the recognition of American Women of Invention, this year recognizing the 200th anniversary of the first woman* to receive a patent on her invention.

For some teenagers there are only a few months left before prom night arrives. While many of these teenagers are buying new dresses, new shoes, new jewelry, renting limos, etc., others are a concerned about the carbon footprint prom night leaves on the planet. To encourage a greener prom, maybe a greener lifestyle too, high school juniors and seniors are encouraged to enter the Project Green Prom Video Contest. 

... The competition is in two phases; the first phase is now until September 11, 2009. But, early registration is definitely wise. It saves you money and it also gives you more exposure to the judges.

How can mobile phone applications enrich people's lives, helping individuals or groups to live better? If you have a solution for a mobile application, and think you know how to make it work, you should enter the N2Y4 Mobile Innovation Challenge, sponsored by NetSquared.

The Grand Prize went to eleven-year-old Tucker Haas from Charlotte, NC. His winning entry, entitled "My Personal Swing Thing," was inspired by his younger sister Lexi, who has Kernicterus, a physical disorder similar to cerebral palsy.

The Greener Gadget Design Competition is back again. Have you voted for your favorite green designs from the list of 50 finalists yet? I have. Take a look at my picks.

The World Wildlife Federation (WWF) has launched the 4th International Smart Gear Competition, this year inviting submissions of designs for fishing devices that reduce bycatch. Bycatch, generally captured by fisheries and fishermen, is the unintended capture of species other than the target species, as well as undesirable young members of the target species.

I've received several press releases in the last few days about different products that received the iF Product Award. What few of them state, or even imply, is that 801 other products also received the award. As there are only 16 categories of products, 801 awards are bound to hit the same products a few times, so hold on to your credit cards until the top 50 Gold Awards are announced!

If anyone deserves a special gift this Holiday season for his kindness and his innovative ideas it's ninth-grader Max Wallack from Natick, Massachusetts. He has already won a few rewards for his inventions. His latest invention won him thousands of dollars and has the potential to help the homeless and clean the environment all at once.