Indiana Inventors Association

Ms. Nikki Lewallen ( Rainmakers Director of Membership Development) introduced us to Rainmakers, an organization dedicated to helping people establish strategic business relationships. Rainmakers helps inventors (among others) succeed by presenting informative business programs and by helping members meet those who can help them. The effectiveness of Rainmakers is evident from its rapid growth in membership - doubling every year (since its founding 5 years ago by Tony Scelzo) to 1200 members today. Through its philosophy of winning and putting others first, Rainmakers: S - creates Strategic relationships H - creates a culture of Hospitality A - has members hold each other Accountable to a higher standard R - is always Recruiting new members E - Encourages and inspires members to achieve their goals How does it work? Sharpen your focus. Create a message that identifies, as specifically as possible, what you need and who you want to meet. Find your power circle. Attend a meeti

Dr. Mileta Tomovic (of Purdue University's Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology) and graduate students Tamara Novakov and Jui Shyang Liu introduced us to the fascinating technology of rapid prototyping, which creates a prototype model of an invention rapidly (2 – 7 hours) and inexpensively. They have generously made the slides of their presentation accessible. Embodying your inventive idea in a physical model can help you: visually communicate your invention to investors, colleagues, and customers optimize your invention before manufacture test market your invention on a small scale establish an invention date for your patent application reverse engineer someone else's invention. One form of rapid prototyping (known as material addition, additive fabrication, three dimensional printing, solid free-form fabrication, layered manufacturing, or computer automated manufacturing) uses a machine, and a description of your invention as Comput