How to Transform an Invention Into a Business: Speaker: James H. Bleck, President, Bleck Design Group
1:20 P.M.– 1:50 P.M.
Abstract:
What are the key factors that turn a great idea into a successful company?
How to select a strategic partner.
If and when to patent your idea.
When to use Asian vs. American manufacturing.
What new tools are available to innovators.
Examples will include real stories of how small and large consumer, medical, and industrial product companies have transformed inventions into businesses.
About the Speaker:
James H. Bleck is the founder and president of Bleck Design Group, an award-winning Boston-area industrial design, engineering and product development firm. Prior to founding Bleck Design Group in 1982, his experience included senior design positions with Latham/Brefka and Digital Equipment Corporation.
Bleck Design Group has earned more than 25 design awards from Appliance Design Magazine, Canon Communications, I.D. Magazine, IDSA/BusinessWeek, Structural Plastics, The Chicago Athenaeum, and The International Consumer Electronic Show; including two "Design of the Decade" awards from IDSA/BusinessWeek for the AVC Electronic Voting Machine and Polycom Soundstation.
James is the current chairman and a co-founder of the Merrimack Valley Venture Forum. He has served as a juror for Industrial Designers Society of America/Business Week International Design Excellence Award and Consumer Electronic Show Innovation Award competitions. He has been an IDSA member since 1977. He has written and contributed to design articles for Design News, Medical Design Technology, Medical Product Manufacturing News, and Moldmaking Technology. He is a frequent speaker on product design to business and academic audiences.
He received his BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois in 1976 and completed graduate studies in management at Northeastern University.
