We are a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship in cities around the world. Using our proven platforms of city-wide innovation competitions and weekend start-up events, we energize the entrepreneurial ecosystem, connecting entrepreneurs and inventors to existing local resources. Build Community. Start Companies. No reports. Just results.

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Cincinnati Innovates

How It Works

Announcing CrowdSpark.

Create your own online competition using our powerful do-it-yourself contest design and management platform, CrowdSpark. Your design, your brand, your sponsors, your rules - our simple software. Don't spend $20,000 on website development for a custom contest - we give you all that plus our proprietary analytics, marketing, and management dashboard. Contests start at $250 at www.crowdspark.com.

Activate the creative class.

Metro Innovation powers regional innovation contests that inspire and challenge anyone with an invention or idea to compete in an online regional innovation contest for significant cash and in-kind awards. The competitions are exciting, drawing out inventors and entrepreneurs of all ages and backgrounds – and inspiring the creative class.

Find new technologies.

The purpose of the contest is to bring new technologies and inventors to the forefront, uncovering the latent intellectual property in cities and unlocking talent that otherwise would go undiscovered.

In One Weekend

Create companies and fuel economic growth.

Innovation stimulates the creation of new start-up companies. By holding regional innovation competitions, cities discover new inventors and can help develop new technologies that already exist in our own backyard. In doing so, the contests increase focus on and investment in local innovation – a critical driver of long term economic growth.

We apply corporate innovation best practices to cities.

Cities are teeming with latent ideas, talents and intellectual property assets – we just need to draw them out. Corporate innovation leaders like Procter & Gamble, Eli Lilly, and NASA, have been using competitions for years to find new innovations - with great success and little capital. So we thought, why not? Let’s apply those corporate best practices to cities.

Prizes and other incentives help us galvanize a whole region.

The X Prize. The Netflix Prize. Innocentive. TopCoder. Crowdspring. 99 Designs. All of these are forms of crowdsourcing, with awards ranging anywhere from $100 to $1 million – and all are extremely effective, high return means of finding and inspiring talent and technology.

A well-run innovation competition requires several critical elements in order to be successful. Metro Innovation’s marketing methods, events, systems, and proprietary technology create massive online and live participation, invigorating the entrepreneurial community.

No reports, just results.

The first competition, Cincinnati Innovates, was a 4 month competition. It garnered 273 entries ranging from biotech to high tech hardware to software and consumer products. The website received 65,000 online votes and 250,000 page views. Coverage in 20 media outlets created over 1,000,000 earned media impressions. Not bad for the first year. The great news? Each year it only gets better.

Prizes

Prizes can be anywhere from $1,000 to $500,000. Structuring the prizes appropriately will help ensure maximum effect for the available resources. Prizes are not awarded by Metro Innovation, but by the grantors themselves. Help evaluating technologies is available, but ultimately, our job is to help you find the best innovations in your region and ensure the broadest participation possible.

Participation

Participation is easy. Contest entrants log on to the competition website and submit a YouTube Video, podcast, photo, or any other type of media that describes their invention. There is no fee to enter the competition.

Benefits

Participant Benefits
  • Anyone can participate, regardless of age, race, education, profession, or expertise. The contest is designed to be truly inclusive and approachable.
  • Winning innovations will receive a prize that will enable inventors to jumpstart their projects.
  • Because of the judging process, all innovations are highlighted for potential local investors, uncovering opportunities that would otherwise remain unknown.
Community Benefits
  • Due to the novel nature of the competition itself and the incredible innovations that are featured in the competition, a city receives worldwide recognition and exposure as an innovative city, both in its approach to economic development and the intellectual property and talent that reside there.
  • Unlocking latent intellectual property assets will create more start-ups, more investment, more jobs, and ultimately ensure the long term economic development.
  • Inclusive, exciting competitions are energizing. An innovation competition will energize the creative class and result in tangible economic outcomes.
Sponsor Benefits
  • Innovation is critical to the long term economic growth of any corporation – and any community. In supporting this innovative approach to stimulating economic development, sponsors will have a significant impact on the future of their city
  • Because the competition earns so much media and participant attention, sponsors in turn can benefit from exposure in the media and directly to a target demographic of inventors, entrepreneurs, and technologists

Requirements & timeline

  • Before we can begin our work, prizes need to be pre-committed
    • Prizes can be state/regional/foundation/private or other grants, pro-bono legal services, or other in-kind donations
    • A minimum of a $10,000 top cash prize is necessary in order for a competition to capture the attention of a region - $20,000 top prize is recommended, but not required
    • Sponsors have the option to sponsor the program or to sponsor the grant(s), either option is acceptable. Sponsors have the option to make grants directly to individuals or contribute to a Metro Innovation partner foundation which will make the grants on behalf of the sponsor.
  • Finalize partnerships and sponsorships two months before the competition launch date
  • Two months of pre-marketing (print, web, media)
  • The contest officially opens
  • The contest is open and will accept entries for several months (three months minimum)
  • Two weeks of judging by a panel of experts/sponsors will conclude with a final awards ceremony that celebrates and highlights the award winners as well as a selection of runners up. Awards sponsors present their awards to the winners.

Partners & Sponsors

  • Foundations
  • Venture funds
  • Angel investors
  • Tech incubators
  • Law firms
  • State & City leaders
  • Corporations
  • Universities
  • Research centers
  • Health care centers
  • Economic development organizations
  • Community leaders
  • Media
Always Thinking
Always Thinking
Always Thinking