Last week Ian Osborn of Wild Ideas Light Company won “Commercial Product of the Year” award at the DaVinci Inventor Showcase.  Congratulations to Ian and Wild Ideas Light Co.

These local showcases can make a big difference for inventors.  For instance, there was a variety of judges at the showcase and they had all day to visit the exhibitors and rate the inventions on a scale of 1 to 10.  The inventors knew who the judges were because of the badge, but if they hadn’t done their home work, they didn’t know who was from the media.

Within 48 hours Ian had three different media sources contact him to write about him, his invention and his company.  It was worth the nominal fee to have access to the media.  We have tried to get to the media the conventional way but being able to be where they are looking for the new story is the key.

If you go to a large tradeshow, the media is there; but you have to go looking for them.  Look for any and all opportunities to get your message into print.  Many of the media at your local inventor showcase will have their articles online and you can get more coverage than you realize.

Once you have the article, there are a variety of ways that you can use it to send your message.  You can post it on your website, email it to other media to encourage additional interviews, mail it to  potential buyers and distributors, etc.

Good Luck.