THE INVENTABLES WORKSHOP

Craig Diamond of Diamond MMA is rethinking fight shorts using Inventables Marketplace . He's looking at options for cushioning that can reduce the pain a fighter feels from a kick or a punch. Protection has typically been foams or liquid gels. Foams tend to become too hot and humid for prolonged contact with the body, and liquid gels will leak if punctured; worse, they bottom out: Liquid gels become unevenly distributed until there is no liquid left at the highest pressure points – exactly where it is needed most. This smart gel forms a shock-absorbing, elastic cushion that does not bottom out, evenly distributes weight and won’t leak if punctured. Recently Craig found this cushioning gel and smashed his hand with a hammer to demonstrate how it works. Stay tuned to the DiamondMMA website as progress on their products progresses.

Inventables fosters a culture of innovation. We think of innovation in the same way gardeners think about growing beautiful flowers. You can't "build" a beautiful flower you just need to set up the right conditions. Nutrient rich soil, water, sunlight, seeds, and patience will eventually yield nice flowers. At Inventables we provide an exploration budget , we give our agile teams free point Friday to work on whatever THEY think is most important. We're proud to announce that our software engineering team used Free Point Friday to create a digital tool to help Agile teams with their standups each morning. The app is free and is called Oneth1ng . It helps your team track the most important thing you want to get done every day. If you don't work in an agile software development process but you are the kind of person that likes to focus on one thing at a time you might want to check it out too.

Wikipedia states "Electroluminescence is an optical phenomenon and electrical phenomenon in which a material emits light in response to an electric current passed through it, or to a strong electric field." Electroluminescence (EL) is a means of generating light by the electrical excitation of light emitting phosphors, similar to how Plasma televisions are backlit today. In this case, the light emitting phosphors are located between two electrically conductive plates. Applying an alternating (A.C.) current activates the system producing light. At least one of the electrodes consists of a light transmissive conductive material allowing the light to escape. What's interesting about application of EL is the substrate is crushable. Electroluminescent devices are becoming more common in products sold today. Most people have seen the soft glowing EL night lights sold at drugstores along with quite a few novelty applications like this animated sign . Today quite a bit o

The society of the plastics industry made an interesting announcement today stating that they will move NPE 2012 from McCormick Place in Chicago to Orlando Florida at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC). NPE is the largest plastics industry event in North America and it would seem that this move signals the event is shrinking. McCormick place has 2.6 million-square feet of exhibition space and the Orange County Convention Center has 2.1 million-square feet of exhibition space. In 2009 nearly 2,000 companies exhibited on 1 million square feet (93,000 square meters), more than a third of them coming from outside the United States. Approximately 75,000 plastics professionals from 120 countries were expected to attend. We'll see what 2012 looks like. Hopefully the economy will pick up and we'll be able to see that kind of activity in the plastics industry again.

When it comes to making decisions on where to spend advertising dollars it's important to think about ROI. Calculating your gross profit generated by each lead source can be handy tool for industrial product marketers to determine the performance of each approach. Figuring out an average cost per call is important too because using that data more efficient lead sources can be identified. At Inventables we have built our platform with ROI in mind for industrial marketers that want to use the internet for lead generation. We think ROI is so important that we offer two things: 1. The opportunity of each vendor to decide if they want to buy each lead. This means you never pay for leads you don't want. 2. A 7 day money back guarantee. This means if you don't like the lead you paid for you get a full refund no questions asked. We are trusting that vendors won't abuse the 7 day money back guarantee by asking for their money back on leads that were worth their time. If

For the second year in a row Inventables is working with World Kitchen on a design competition. Last year's Tea Off was a success with 240 entries attracted an impressive level of quality from around the globe. With three outstanding Award Winners and 25 Honorable Mentions, we celebrated design innovation at the International Home + Housewares Show in March. The guiding principle for the contest is: participants retain ownership of designs, subject to World Kitchen’s right of first refusal. (One of the many points you will want to read up about in the Rules .) Dining is an experience expressive of lifestyle, economics, ethnicity and heritage. It is imbued with meaning and ritual, as well as function. At its most basic, it nourishes the body; at its best it nourishes the spirit. Dining is an opportunity for a meaningful experience, for sharing and connection through food. Change is the fuel that design innovation thrives on. It inspires us by asking the question, “How can we

Traditional advertising requires marketers to assume risk. There is a risk they will pay for an advertisement and the new sales revenue generated from the advertising will not be enough to provide a return on their investment. Purchasing an ad in a magazine, a banner advertisement on a website, or purchasing a booth at a trade show all require an upfront payment in the hope that customers will come. We believe industrial marketing can now be guaranteed to provide return on investment. Inventables is challenging the old industrial marketing model. Inventables is a website where vendors that manufacture materials or technologies can create online profiles for their products in order to generate sales leads. Potential customers looking to source new materials and technologies browse through these profiles everyday and submit inquiries about products they are interested in. As a vendor, you are notified by email each time your Inventables profile receives a new inquiry and given an

About the size of a grain of sand, this RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip is the smallest of its kind in the world. The basis of this type of technology is that a scanner can be used to identify unique information on each chip. Packed into each of these tiny devices is a unique 128-bit code or 26 character unique identification number, which is implanted during manufacturing. Like a fingerprint, each chip is unique. Because the chips are so small they can be embedded in all sorts of new applications — such as paper or coatings — for purposes of identification and validation. This short video from IBM paints a picture of what grocery stores will be like with RFID chips on every product. The chip itself has no power source, instead deriving the power it needs from the radio waves it receives when being read by the scanner. The chip uses special ROM memory, so it prevents counterfeiting, copying and tampering. Other RFID chips have been developed for tracking products in a