3 February 2023 by Barbara Bouffard | Comments are off for this post Ideas for the kitchen and bathroom sought in 2023 student plastics design competition Budding designers interested in working with plastics have been set a challenge by the Design Innovation in Plastics (DIP) competition to design a new product for the kitchen or bathroom. The 2023 competition, which will be contested by university undergraduates all over [...]
29 November 2022 by Barbara Bouffard | Comments are off for this post New app that focuses on being kind is racing ahead of TikTok in app store ratings! Gas is a new app that focuses on being kind and building confidence among your friend group. The latest craze amongst teenagers in the US, you can “gas someone up” – pay them an anonymous compliment, to boost their [...]
22 November 2022 by James Mcinerny | Comments are off for this post Funding Opportunity - Fashion and Textile products Mango is investing £ 2.5 million in fashion start-ups A few months ago Mango announced it is creating a £2.5 million fashion start-up accelerator fund to help up to 50 companies develop their fashion businesses. For those who don't know, an accelerator typically helps early-stage companies which have [...]
28 October 2022 by Barbara Bouffard | Comments are off for this post Licensing an Invention - the unknown way of commercialising an idea When we think of commercialising an invention, we often forget about licensing, however, it requires less capital investment and therefore you take less risks. Licensed products are all around us. You will have heard of licensing in the music industry or for large brands [...]
18 October 2022 by James Mcinerny | Comments are off for this post Aldi plans to spend an extra £3.5 billion a year with British businesses To help find them, Aldi is launching a new competition called Aldi's Next Big Thing on Chanel 4 which will see 36 small businesses compete to win a place in Aldi's Specialbuys and gain massive exposure in the process. The show will [...]
11 October 2022 by James Mcinerny | Comments are off for this post Thinking about developing a new product idea? Well if you are based in the UK, you are in the right place. According to the 2022 Global Innovation Index, the UK ranks fourth in the world for Innovation, behind Switzerland, the US and Sweden. In terms of Scientific and Technological intensity, Cambridge was joint first globally [...]
9 August 2022 by James Mcinerny | Comments are off for this post 4 key benefits of rewards-based crowdfunding In our previous article, we discussed 5 unlikely product successes. One of them was a potato salad that raised $55,000 through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. Lots of people have been asking for more information on this type of crowdfunding so we created this as a follow-up article, get in [...]
26 July 2022 by James Mcinerny | Comments are off for this post 5 unlikely products and how they made it big 1. Dryrobe First up, we have a large poncho with absorbent towel material on the inside and a waterproof coat material on the outside. You don't see many people wearing ponchos in public so maybe its worn inside? You use a towel to dry yourself after [...]
1 June 2022 by Barbara Bouffard | Comments are off for this post Small but mighty – Iceland, Leader in Sustainable technologies As part of the Innovation Module of my MBA, we took a class trip to Iceland – and no, it wasn’t just a holiday. The aim of the trip was to understand why Iceland was becoming such a key player in the Innovation industry, and in [...]
3 May 2022 by Barbara Bouffard | Comments are off for this post Garden Product Trends 2022 As the weather improves, it's a great time to get outside and immerse yourself in the world of gardening. The Horticultural Trades Association, says that out of the 3 million new gardeners who emerged during lockdown, 2.3 million of them have continued their hobby into this year. With the ever-growing gardening [...]
