There's been growing recognition in the region that entrepreneurs, innovation, advanced technology and fresh ideas will be essential to remaking Erie into a vital, forward-facing community.
What better time, then, to restart the Innovation Erie Design Competition as a means to solicit and nurture ideas that could lead to new businesses here? And what better venue for the competition, after a one-year hiatus, than the Idea Lab at Blasco Library?
The competition is centered on people in a variety of disciplines — science, art, manufacturing, engineering, design — entering original ideas for products that could be made in Erie and lead to the creation of new businesses. Participants will receive support from regional and national product development experts at a design lab later in February and early March.
It will be held at Blasco's Idea Lab, which opened in the fall of 2017 as a catalyst for the sort of brainstorming and innovation the contest aims to foster.
As reporter Matthew Rink detailed on Wednesday, the competition was launched in 2008 by Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Penn State Behrend, Civitas and the Erie Art Museum. Previous editions drew as many as 35 submissions in a single year.
The competition was adopted in 2018 by the Idea Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to providing resources and services to entrepreneurs trying to turn ideas into viable businesses. The Idea Fund suspended the competition for a year as it retooled it and planned its move to the Idea Lab.
That will be the site of the Innovation Erie Product Design Lab on Feb. 23 and continuing on March 2. Topics will include product design, 3D printing, engineering for cost, local resources, and patents, according to Erin Wincek, executive director of the Erie County Public Library.
That will set the stage for the contest entry period, which opens March 4 and closes on March 22. Applications will be accepted at www.ideafunderie.org.
The coming together of the Idea Fund and its mission, the Idea Lab and its resources, and the next wave of Erie entrepreneurs is a reflection of the synergies and collaboration that have been forming in the region to help unleash creative energy and turn it into economic development. A variety of people and groups have been rejecting Erie's deep-seated tendency to pine for the past in favor of creating anew and looking ahead.
The Innovation Erie contestants will be competing for a prize package intended to start turning the winning idea into action. Four finalists will vie for a $10,000 prize package that includes $3,000 in cash plus assistance with product development and manufacturing.
Some of Erie's biggest past success stories sprang from entrepreneurial roots. That spirit is again on the move.