INPEX® Inventors University™ Seminar Schedule

Don't miss the first opportunity to network with other INPEX exhibitors and meet Trade Show Director Nicole Hait. Nicole has appeared in many magazines and television shows including Entrepreneur and The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch on CNBC. She is also featured in Deutsch's recent book, The Big Idea. Nicole will take this opportunity to share her knowledge of exhibiting with INPEX inventors, discuss how to get the most out of your INPEX experience and fill inventors in on proper trade show etiquette. She will also cover the scheduled events planned for the show. Highly recommended for first time trade show exhibitors!

Intromark Incorporated, a licensing and marketing company, will discuss the unique nature of INPEX. Speakers will share their over 25 combined years of knowledge and experience exhibiting at INPEX and many other more "traditional" trade shows. The speakers will touch on the subject of INPEX being a unique, niche trade show and exhibitors' expectations. A variety of topics will be discussed including exhibiting, qualifying and following up with companies, as well as the basics to licensing. The seminar will close with a general Question & Answer session. Highly recommended!

Learn the basics of Direct Response Television (DRTV) from Michael Planit, President of Product Strategies, Inc. During his seminar, Michael will teach inventors the importance of having an elevator pitch, how to present a product to a panel of industry professionals, what they look for and how to tell whether you have a product that is right for DRTV. Michael will share valuable insight into his 20 plus years of experience in the infomercial world.

*This seminar is mandatory if you would like to be qualified to present your product to the Electronic Retailing Association's panel of industry professionals on Friday, June 18. Those who are chosen by the panel will be invited to participate in the InventHelp/INPEX New Product Showcase at ERA's D2C Convention in Las Vegas this September. Those who would like to present a product to the panel, must first attend this seminar, then be qualified to do so on Wednesday, June 16 or Thursday June 17 during show hours.

In this information-packed, highly entertaining seminar, you will learn practical marketing strategies you can implement to jump-start your marketing. Come to this session to find out "The Seven Secrets" and bring your invention to life... and to market!

Discover:

• How to leverage your marketing budget by targeting only qualified "hungry fish"
• How to make powerful offers for your invention using "irresistible bait"
• The five mistakes most inventors make (and the one you're probably doing yourself)
• How to boost response rates with premiums, freemiums, and creative mailers
• The single most important word you should be using (and it's not "free" or "you")
• The secret of "next stepping" – how to move prospects from "cold" to "hot"
• Three ways to generate buzz and excitement for your invention
• The "kiss of death" for selling your invention – and how to avoid this mistake

Join us to hear from serial entrepreneur and Inc. Magazine blogger Nolan Bushnell as he shares his start-up triumphs, failures and lessons learned. Nolan will offer his "from the trenches" perspective, via relevant stories from the founding of Atari Corporation, and encourage fledgling entrepreneurs to see how both the difficult times and successes combined to create a template for a complete start-up. He'll contrast those experiences with the story of Chuck E. Cheese, a model for early intrapreneurship within Atari. He'll share his 20/20 hindsight and demonstrate how you can use his hard won wisdom to tackle your own challenges – from cash flow shortages, conflicting internal politics, skepticism and changing management philosophies. Attendees will emerge from this session inspired and also armed with practical insights they can put to immediate use in their own corporate environments.

Reward yourself with refreshing, relevant and content-rich takes on branding your products and business. Howard will punch through the jargon and misconceptions and deliver branding truths that have been proven in the marketplace, over and over again:

• How to improve your invention and to attract licensor, buyers, retail, and investors
• How to define your UBP (Unique Buying Proposition) to licensee, licensors, buyers, retail, and investor
• How to create prototypes that are more cost effective
• How to gain a much higher ROI by better managing your marketing, graphics and advertising
• How to form matches between your product’s value and your prospects' mindset
• How to create new opportunities and channels for higher revenue streams with your product
• How to brand like a fortune 500 company without spending like one
• How to alter the perceptions of customers & prospects for increased trust and profits
• How to integrate all your communications pieces into a single, authoritative voice
• How to integrate your business and your brand for greater mindshare and profits
• How to enhance your business model for better franchising and product line extensions
• How to learn, and avoid, the five most common—and costly—branding mistakes
• How to leverage your business, products and/or services to give you a competitive edge
• FREE gifts

The road of getting a product from conception to distribution is a long treacherous one. Many inventors spend years getting their ideas produced only to find that their product or a product like it has been created already, can not be produced economically or is not commercially viable for mass sales. This session will focus on what makes a good product, how to find the right people to source it and which categories sell best on TV, in stores and in print both nationally and worldwide.

Then, if a person is lucky enough to get everything right; what kinds of deals are out there for the inventor to make. How do you go about making the best deal for yourself without giving away the store? This lecture will focus in on deals that allow you to maintain control, license your product, but keep some territory for yourself or take no risk at all. Who do trust? How do you know if you'll get your royalty? What can you do to track sales? It will be an intensive lecture that gives inventors and entrepreneurs the knowledge to attempt to get their products to market and the negotiating power they'll need if it gets it there.

In this exciting, fun, interactive presentation based Jill Lublin's newest book, Get Noticed... Get Referrals, attendees will learn just that – how to get noticed! Learn how to:

• Create name recognition so that people will want to do business with you
• Identify, contact, and convince the best referral sources
• Build strong referral networks
• Make your work enjoyable and more successful
• Balance your life by serving others
• Provide better customer service
• Distinguish yourself with flair
• Conduct business around your values and life

Richard Blank, Attorney at Law, will outline some of the important steps, procedures, types of agreements, legal aspects and give helpful pointers when trying to license your product.

Jim DeBetta, President of DeBetta Enterprises, is proud to announce an exciting new seminar! This series was developed to help inventors with a "market ready" or near market ready product to learn the basics of how to prepare and deliver a presentation to a retail buyer.

Since you must be able to sell your product in order to achieve your financial goals with your product, Jim will show you how to prepare your product for retail sale, what to say to retail buyers to get them interested in your product, what to do when you are in a meeting with a retail buyer, and what to do when the meeting is over. You don't want to miss the this opportunity to listen to Jim share his vast knowledge of the retail world.

Whether you have just an idea, have developed a prototype or are ready to market, this information-packed session will discuss the many facets of Intellectual Property law (IP) that successful businesses use to promote and protect their brand and their products. The session will discuss the different kinds of IP and how to use them in marketing and advertising, including:

• Patent law
• Obtaining a patent
• The different kinds of patents
• What protection is available to an inventor at different stages of the patent acquisition
• Trademarks
• Applying for trademarks
• Trademark protection with and without a registered mark
• Protecting and policing your mark
• Building your Brand – using your mark
• Trade Dress
• Registering Your Trade Dress
• Package vs. Product Trade Dress – important legal differences
• Patent vs. Trade Dress – are they mutually exclusive?
• Copyright
• Copyright protection
• Importance of registering
• An Idea vs. the Expression
• Advertising
• Using your IP in advertising – do's and don'ts
• Substantiating your advertising claims

Industry experts Edie Tolchin (aka The Sourcing Lady^SM) and Don Debelak, co-authors of Sourcing Smarts, get together in this MUST-SEE presentation on how to get your product SAFELY manufactured in China, and how to WISELY market it once it's done.

In the first part, Edie Tolchin takes you through an overview of how to get your product READY for China sourcing and manufacturing, and how to follow the steps to insure product safety. Of importance is the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act and how to comply with the myriad regulations affecting your new invention. What is a Product Design Evaluation and why do I need one? How about a General Conformity Certificate? What are Tracking Labels? How do I find out about the Consumer Product Safety Commission's "Regulated Products"? Can I use ANY lab to test my products? The list of questions goes on, with tons of useful information provided!

In the second part, Don Debelak covers how inventors should have three goals in marketing their product; a) generate quick sales; b) create a strong market presence; and c) ensure that marketing expenses are less than 10% of the sales they generate. The secrets to doing that are: d) identifying the right target market; e) finding the right market contacts to help you and f) creating a story of success. His session deals first with identifying the right target market and then covers extensively how to find, nurture and work with key market contacts that can accelerate your sales and guide your marketing efforts so they are cost effective. Attendees will learn how to find the right contacts by networking in their chosen markets, and how to enlist those contacts as mentors and supporters by demonstrating that the product has the right price, package and features to be a strong seller.

Brief Q&A follows each session, and both Edie Tolchin and Don Debelak will be available at the Inventor Resource Center on Thursday June 17th and Friday June 18th to cover any additional issues you may need help with!