Web site to connect inventors, companies

By Barbara McGuire
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

With Web sites like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s
greenlightproject.com, which believes good screenplays are out
there but writers just don’t have the means to get them
produced, the Internet is offering the chance for a nobody to
become a somebody with just the click of a mouse.

It’s sites like these that show how the Internet is
becoming a tool that brings everyday people closer to making their
dreams a reality, as opposed to functioning simply as a research
mechanism or chat room go-between. A new Web site, bigideahunt.com,
holds similar goals to greenlightproject.com, only it aims to
provide inventors with a venue to market their products to
retailers.

The Web site plans to launch various campaigns that will give
inventors the chance to get their products seen and tested. A site
that seems useful to both potential inventors with ideas and
professional corporations looking for ideas, bigideahunt.com is the
first company of its kind that hopes to form a line of
communication between the two groups.

According to the Web site, Michael Collins, founder of Big Idea
Hunt Inc., created the company after experiencing problems on both
sides of the process.

“This company was born of my frustrations as both an
inventor and CEO of a company looking for innovative new
ideas,” he said. “From my experience, matching up a
great idea with the right company is too often like BBs colliding
““ it can happen, but it’s a coincidence.”

With such honest inspiration, the company has launched its first
national campaign, “Toys and Games Search,” with the
desire to find the most unique and innovative new toy products.
Anyone is invited to participate in the contest-like campaign, and
can register their entries for the contest via the Web site.

This project, along with the other projects Big Idea Hunt hopes
to launch, is aimed at helping both the inventors and corporate
partners of the company. Inventors are offered not only a
connection straight to experts in the field, but also help in
developing, packaging and presenting ideas, in addition to
negotiation of a licensing agreement, which is often considered to
be the most tedious and difficult part of the process.

Big Idea Hunt presents the ideas they choose consider to be the
best to their corporate partners. To streamline the process,
companies will only be shown products that are similar to those the
has specified an interest in.

The Web site is the easiest way to access all that Big Idea Hunt
has to offer. Those who visit the site will have the option to
learn more about the way the company works, register for any of its
various campaigns or access potentially valuable information.

For instance, visitors can read the “Inventors’ Bill
of Rights,” a list which lets inventors know what steps they
should take to make sure they aren’t being cheated. The list
sets down a few house rules that Big Idea Hunt follows to uphold
their professionalism and prevent any misunderstandings between
inventors and the site’s administrators.

Rights range from “Respect,” which promises to
provide “respect for the needs and concerns of
inventors,” to “Confidentiality,” which declares,
“information that inventors share with Big Idea Hunt about
themselves, their inventions and their ideas will be treated as
confidential information.”

Though their “Toys and Games Search” campaign is
currently the only project under way, the site promises that more
will soon follow. Other future idea campaigns may include music,
sports products, food and beverages, software, health and beauty
aids and screenplays, to name a few.

“Young Inventors Zone, the e-community for young
inventors,” is in developmental stages, aiming to open up the
invention market to young creative minds.

So, for those who have a great idea that came to them one
drunken evening, or maybe during a moment of epiphany,
bigideahunt.com is the site to check out.