FAQs, Contest Rules & Terms
In this section we get into the details of the contest. Many of your questions should be answered in the frequently asked questions section, but make sure to refer to the Contest Rules and Regulations ("Official Rules") and the Terms and Conditions as well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Curious minds want to know. Here are the answers to your burning Cincinnati Innovates questions.
- What is Cincinnati Innovates?
- Is there a fee to enter?
- When does the Contest start?
- When does the Contest end?
- How do you submit an innovation to Cincinnati Innovates?
- What kind of files can be submitted?
- How are the winners decided?
- Why would people submit entries?
- Who can participate?
- What is a Greater Cincinnati Connection?
- What must the entry include?
- Who are the judges?
- How long will the sponsors and judges be interacting with my entry?
- Can a person or business submit more than one idea?
- Why is Cincinnati Innovates launching this contest?
- When will winners be announced?
- How will the winners be notified?
- Is Cincinnati Innovates open to employees or board members of the contest sponsors?
- How can Cincinnati Innovates use my innovation information and submission materials?
- How many times can I vote for an idea?
- What prevents someone from stealing my idea?
- Can I win more than one prize?
- If I win, how can I spend the money or use the in-kind services?
- If I win, what do I have to do?
Cincinnati Innovates is an innovation contest that offers cash and in-kind prizes to contestants with a connection to Greater Cincinnati that have transformative innovations. Our prize sponsors, assisted by a team of judges from the venture capital and technology industries, will select the winners of the awards. The commercialization awards are cash prizes of $25,000 and $10,000 provided by CincyTech, and $10,000 provided by a Northern Kentucky consortium (Northern Kentucky eZone, Vision 2015, Northern Kentucky Tri-Ed, and biologic) to help winners jumpstart their innovations. There are also several awards of in-kind services including $10,000 and $5,000 of in-kind pro bono legal services provided by Taft Stettinius & Hollister to help winners legally protect their innovations and start or grow their business; $10,000 of design and branding services provided by LPK; $5,000 of web application services provided by CoStrategix; and $2,500 of business accounting and advisory services provided by Cooney, Faulkner & Stevens. In addition, there is a $2,000 cash prize community choice award that is determined by ranking and page views on the CincinnatiInnovates.com website. There is also a cash prize of $1,000 for the best student innovator (an enrolled student). Have a new technology or innovation? Go ahead, post away.
Cincinnati Innovates was created by a group of individuals and organizations in Greater Cincinnati that are passionate about encouraging and developing entrepreneurship and innovation in the region. Cincinnati Innovates is sponsored by Greater Cincinnati organizations including CincyTech, the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation, and Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP.
No, there is not a fee to enter the contest. The only requirements are that it must have a Greater Cincinnati Connection and focus on an innovation.
The contest will begin accepting entries and allowing individuals to rate those entries 12:00:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time May 1, 2010.
The contest will stop accepting entries and allowing individuals to rate those entries at 11:59:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time September 1, 2010.
Submitting your idea is easy. All you need to do is click here. On this page you need to enter your contact information, the entry title, and a summary of the entry. In addition we will want you to upload an image of your entry, the file itself, or an html link that allows people to interact with your innovation. Once you agree to the rules and regulations you can submit the entry. Entries may be screened prior to posting, to ensure they conform to contest rules, so there may be a delay before you can view it on the site. You will receive a confirmation email, so that you know that the entry has been received.
Part of the goal of this contest is to reach a wide variety of innovations employing different types of technology - so we want to be open to a wide variety of file formats. At the same time, we recognize that some of you are developing really high powered things that may require more bandwidth than we can readily support on this site. Therefore, the website is designed to allow you to upload graphics, audio, video, and pdf files. If your content does not fit into one of those narrow categories, then we still encourage you to upload an entry image that is no more than 500 KB in size and then either provide a URL where individuals can interact with your entry or submit additional files (Word, PDF, PowerPoint, etc) using Drop.io. In addition to drawings and images of prototypes, some of the files we anticipate receiving are videos, games, social networking applications, mobile applications, widgets, and blogs. Be creative and as thorough as possible in your presentation and feel free to use as many types of media as you need to help promote your innovation to the judges and to the public.
There are three separate types of prizes. The winners are decided differently for each type.
The winners of the commercialization awards are selected by the sponsors of the commercialization award, in consultation with a team of judges from the venture capital and technology industries.
The winners of the in-kind services awards are selected by the sponsor of the in-kind award, in consultation with the team of judges.
For the community choice award, we find the entry with the highest ranking and view combination at the end of the ranking period. Since this is the public voting, presentation is very important. A funny video or engaging program will receive more notice than a highly technical description of an innovation.
The winner of the student innovator award will be selected by the team of judges and must be an enrolled student.
Certain eligibility and other contest rules apply. See the Official Contest Rules for details.
- They're proud to share their innovation with the world.
- They need and want some free publicity for their technology.
- They want to show the world what is going on in Greater Cincinnati.
- They're looking for input, advice and feedback on their ideas.
- They're looking to connect with organizations designed to help guide entrepreneurs and small technology companies to success. Our contest partners can provide valuable services to the winners of the contest.
- They want to get connected to potential investors in start-up and early-stage companies.
- They want their work to be seen by local and national technology experts in fields ranging from mobile technology to life sciences.
- And maybe the best reason, they want to win up to $25,000!
Anyone with a technology or innovation with a Greater Cincinnati connection. People like entrepreneurs, inventors, small business owners, students, and stay-at-home moms and dads. Your profession or lack thereof doesn't matter - just your idea.
Your concept can also be in any stage of development from a drawing to a retail ready product or existing business.
If you do know one of the contest judges or someone who works at one of our prize sponsors, then you are still eligible to compete for the prizes, but you do need to identify that conflict of interest by emailing Elizabeth Edwards at elizabeth (at) cincinnatiinnovates.com. Judges with a conflict of interest will recuse themselves from evaluating entries from these parties. Certain eligibility and other rules apply to the contest. Check the Official Contest Rules for details.
Having a connection to "Greater Cincinnati" is defined broadly for this contest. Greater Cincinnati includes Brown, Butler, Clermont, Hamilton and Warren Counties in Ohio; Boone, Bracken, Gallatin, Grant, Campbell, Kenton, and Pendleton Counties in Kentucky; and Dearborn, Franklin, and Ohio Counties in Indiana. To see a map of the Greater Cincinnati area, click here. A Cincinnati connection includes but may not be limited to:
- Invented in Greater Cincinnati
- Innovation is the product of a student, staff or researcher of an educational institution in Greater Cincinnati
- Setting is in Greater Cincinnati; for example a game or simulation that showcases Cincinnati's skyline
- Company or individual who owns the innovation is located in Greater Cincinnati
- The inventor is originally from Cincinnati
- If you have an alternate connection to Greater Cincinnati, then feel free to put it on the entry form where we will consider it but we cannot guarantee it will pass muster. Cincinnati Innovates has the sole and ultimate discretion to determine whether there is sufficient connection to the Cincinnati Region.
Please note, however, that as a condition to receiving a commercialization award sponsored by CincyTech, the winner will be required to locate the business that is commercializing the innovation within the State of Ohio. Similarly the winner of the Northern Kentucky Commercialization Award will be required to locate the business that is commercializing the innovation within the State of Kentucky. See the Official Rules for details.
All entries must include:
- A Title
- A summary
- A short description (one sentence will suffice) of the connection to the Cincinnati Region
- An image or screenshot of the innovation
- Additional files or a url where the innovation can be accessed by the judges and or public
- For all "timed" entries like video or audio, the content cannot exceed 5 minutes
- Contact Name and or Team Name and contact information
For the community choice award, your friends, family, other innovators, and anyone who stumbles across the CincinnatiInnovates.com can be a judge. These individuals can vote up to 1 time per day towards your technology or innovation for the entire voting period.
For the other awards, the prize sponsors will evaluate the entries and select the winners, with assistance from a panel of judges which include representatives from venture capital industry, information technology, medical and life sciences and other innovation fields. Judges and sponsors will be required to identify conflicts of interest and to recuse themselves from voting for those entries. A conflict of interest is defined as having a business, family, or close personal relationship with an individual and or team. For instance if the Judge is an administrator of a school you attend currently or is a member of your board then he/she cannot vote on your entry. Having a conflict of interest with one of the following judges in no way hurts or helps your chances of winning an award.
The judges will have a large portfolio of innovations that they will be looking at for this contest. Therefore, those entries that make a big impact in a short period of time will probably be most effective. Clearly some entries will be longer than others, but take into consideration the amount of time and the number of entries judges will have before entering your submission.
You bet - there's no limit on the number of innovations you can submit. But there may be a limit on how many you can think up and present before the contest is over!
To stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship in Greater Cincinnati and connect aspiring entrepreneurs with resources to help them launch their companies.
Winners will be announced at our awards event on September 22, 2010 at 6:30 PM. The event is open to the public and located at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in downtown Cincinnati. Space is limited, so we encourage you to register early. Click on the Events tab and register for the Awards Ceremony. We look forward to seeing you there! In addition, the winners will be announced on the Cincinnati Innovates website.
Cincinnati Innovates will contact you by email, phone and mail. If a winner does not respond to our attempts to contact them within 14 days of contact, we reserve the right to award the prize to the submission with the next highest ranking based on the applicable selection criteria.
While employees of the prize sponsors, contest committee members, and their close family and household members can submit ideas and receive valuable feedback, they are not eligible for cash prizes. See the Official Rules for complete eligibility requirements.
Cincinnati Innovates will use your innovation information and your submission materials for purposes of conducting the contest and described in these FAQs, the Official Rules and Submitter Terms and Conditions. In addition, we may also elect to use entry submissions for promoting technology with ties to Greater Cincinnati, regardless of whether your submission was selected as a winner. Please see the Submitter Terms and Conditions for more details about how your materials may be used. Except for the promotional rights described in the Submitter Terms and Conditions, we are not asking for rights in your innovation, and we do not intend to restrict your ability to continue developing your innovation.
You can vote each innovation once per day.
Well, nothing really. We like to think that most of our visitors are trustworthy. After all, they're putting their own ideas out there too. And, of course, if you don't share your idea, you won't receive advice on how to grow your idea, not to mention you can't win the prizes. But since we can't control what someone else may do with your idea, and since disclosing your idea may have legal ramifications, if your idea is proprietary or you have a patent pending then you should not post it without getting legal advice first. For further questions or concerns, refer to our "Intellectual Property 101" page and the Terms & Conditions.
Yes! A winner of a commercialization prize is eligible for in-kind services prizes as well, and vice versa. However, no entry may win more than one commercialization prize, and winners of the commercialization prizes and in-kind prizes are not eligible to win the community choice award or the student innovator award.
The funds are intended to help you launch your idea! The commercialization awards are provided subject to the terms and conditions of a grant agreement with CincyTech or Northern Kentucky eZone, as applicable. See the Terms & Conditions and the Contest Rules and Regulations for more detail.
The in-kind awards are intended to provide you with professional services to help protect and commercialize your idea and grow your business. They are provided subject to the terms and conditions of an engagement agreement with the prize sponsor. The Taft awards are also subject to Ohio legal ethics rules. See the Terms & Conditions and the Contest Rules and Regulations for more detail.
We will have to have you fill out and sign some paperwork. This will depend on the type of award you win - for example, for the commercialization awards, you will need to sign a grant agreement with CincyTech or eZone, and for the Taft awards, you will need to fill out an sign an engagement letter where you officially become a "client" of Taft. We may also have an event or events where the top entries will be showcased. Winners are welcome to attend these events, but will not be required. Your name or team name may be used in promotional materials. We would like to interview you and potentially have an article about you and your innovation in local media.