MetaBugg.com

So, my wife and I went to the Ronald Reagan Building yesterday for the Everyday Edisons auditions. We got there right before registration ended at 1 pm, and were the final taped audition of the night, ending close to midnight.

It went great, in more ways then one. Best of all, my idea is being considered for the show. As far as I can tell, there are no more tryouts. The video clip of my wife and I playing our game will be considered among the rest of those that passed round 2, and a total of about 10 ideas will be chosen for Season 2 of Everyday Edisons (aka EE).

Click on for a long posting with more info…

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Five cities are being visited for Season 2: Indy, Chicago, Houston already, and San Diego is next. For DC, I heard that there were about 800 folks trying out. About 60 made it to Round 2, when they were taped. Of those, I would guess a little less than half were told they would be considered for the show. Then, after a couple of months of patent searches and deliberation, they will let the finalists know who will be invited to develop their idea on the show.

Pre-Audition: First, there was an IdeaSpark* that occurred to me about 3 weeks ago (it’s table-top game, and the idea was part the synchronicity I wrote about in my latest metapost). About a week later, I read about the show, Everyday Edisons via an American Inventor Spot post. I thought I could try to make a prototype of my game for the auditions, which happened to be in a two weeks around here (Washington, DC).

I constructed a prototype the next Friday, and made a better version that Sunday. I played it with my wife and a friend, and we all had fun and thought it had potential.

Then I started getting ambivalent about auditioning. In addition to my insecurities about exposing my creations to others, and being tentative about actually testing my dreams of one day becoming an inventor, I began to wonder about the details (e.g. who will own the product, will I lose control, how little money will I make via a show, etc). I also wondered if should wait for the American Inventor auditions (another show), giving me more time to develop my game.

So I figured I would try to get some intellectual protection, and played phone tag with my patent attorney cousin, whom I thought could give me advice on how to proceed.

The Eve of the Auditions: Friday evening, I hadn’t spoken to my cousin, and had not prepared at all to go to the EE auditions. Why not? I hadn’t perfected the product, it felt too soon, and at a cursory glance, the 5% royalties on EE didn’t seem as lucrative as the $1 million plus 25% for American Inventor (how presumptuous of me). I still don’t know if that info is accurate; my ADDed brain lost focus on page 1 of the 20-page EE agreement, and the AI info is courtesy of a forum posting.

But that night at around 10 pm, I got a call from a friend, who informed me that she thought that local press would be at the auditions. At the very least, we thought, I could try to get some publicity for SparkBugg. So I said, why not? In therapy the previous day, I was talking about swinging for the fences. So having decided to go, I spent that night preparing for the auditions, which included gathering my favorite puzzles and games in a suitcase to bring with me (I thought that it would be a long day, and that my fellow auditioners would appreciate those novelties to pass the time). I also did a few other things to improve my prototype.

Audition Day (Prepping): So my wife convinced me to get up early to run our errands, because registration was from 7am – 1pm. We hit the road by 10 am, getting bagels, then visiting Target, Sports Authority, and Home Depot for more supplies. We also scurried to hit Michael’s to buy iron on letters and t-shirts (to make Sparkbugg.com shirts), and CVS for disposable video cameras.

Thinking I would easily make it by 1 pm, we hit massive traffic on Memorial Bridge at around 12:30. I went from being frustrated, to wanting to cry, to a deflated existential resignation that maybe this wasn’t meant to be. But then the traffic cleared (it was a construction project), and we got there in time to have the cops check the car for bombs (the auditions were in a federal building), drop off my wife to do recon, park the car, and unpack and carry in all my crap.

Audition Day (Settling in): My wife was in the registration line at 12:55. She gave me the forms, and with my adrenalinized and shaking hand, I scribbled down required descriptions and info and signed everything without reading it too carefully.

Then, we got to work making our SparkBugg t-shirts (tip: remember to remove the paper backing of the letters before you try to iron them on). We eventually had the t-shirts on and were playing the game in public when the folks from the Washington Post wanted to talk to us and snap a few pictures.

Talking to the press was exciting, and I was flattered. I told the photographer to feel free to use pictures of the actual invention, even though it wasn’t patented, because I figure I should shoot for publicity. I didn’t know how well my game would go in the auditions, so the best I was hoping for was that a possible mention and picture in the Post (that would be wild!) would get me more traffic to Sparkbugg (hence the t-shirts).

Playing the game in public was deliberate: I thought that it would create some attention and buzz, that publicly displaying it would maybe claim some sort of ownership and protection, and that maybe it would be an interesting photo op. But I didn’t really know if another inventor couldn’t then just steal the idea, so it felt like a calculated risk (my wife thought it was a very bad idea). But, I reminded myself that I needed to start getting my ideas out there, and not worry so much about making money.

Prior to the tryout, we had several hours on our hands. My wife and I continued play the game to improve our skills for the demonstration, I started to make another set of the game, and then we ate lunch. Then our number was called, and a group of about 8 of us were escorted to a sitting area, in front of one of many small rooms filled with the preliminary judges. My wife and I decided we would go first.

To be Continued (because I need to go back to sleep, and this is one damn long post)…

For Part 3, click HERE.