PRESS RELEASE
INTERNS GAIN FOCUS AT ‘INNOVATION
CHALLENGE’ PROGRAM
Teams hope to create inventions that will earn $1 billion
annually
ROANOKE, Va. – June 7, 2004 – For 16 lucky
college students this June, dreams and reality will
merge to form the perfect summer internship – Innovation
Challenge. The rigorous business program will not only
shape the interns’ future but quite possibly
the world’s.
Conducted by The Egg Factory, (TEF), a creator and
developer of innovations to Fortune 500 companies and
private equity firms, the highly competitive internship
program selects students who have eight weeks to create
a business or product that can be developed, sold and
earning $1 billion annually in five years.
The goal is to develop third year college students,
who, when they graduate, will know what it takes to
be innovative and keep a business growing. More focused
than the usual summer internship, Innovation Challenge
offers realistic, intense training for students before
they hit the job market.
Approximately 1,000 students from 20 universities
applied for the 16 spots in the program this year,
including some from Brazil, France and Australia. Students
at Duke, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, the University
of Virginia, Miami and Roanoke College were selected
and placed on four teams made up of an engineering
student, a liberal arts student, an industrial design
student and a business student.
Relying on the different strengths and the unique
thought processes each of the four disciplines require,
the teams are challenged to create potential “golden
eggs” that meet the following criteria:
1. The potential of more than $1 billion in annual
revenue within five years of commercial launch.
2. The potential to control a vast majority of the
new space being created.
3. The potential of commercial development within three
years.
4. Proprietary technology
5. Benefit to society
Innovation Challenge is the idea of
Ron Blum, founder and CEO of The Egg Factory. After
selling Innotech, a company Blum founded and took public
on the Nasdaq, to Johnson & Johnson
for $135 million, Blum formed TEF to market innovative
ideas
to companies who can then develop them.
“We want to be known as an innovation supply
house,” Blum said. “We want to match consumer
needs with a solution . . . We think of innovation
as our inventory. We are not an incubator and we are
not a venture capitalist. We are primarily interested
in transformational innovation.”
Innovation Challenge, which is in its fifth year and
runs from June 6 to July 30, “provides students
with the necessary knowledge for starting and developing
their own innovations,” he said. Students live
at Roanoke College, have all expenses paid and receive
a stipend during the program.
One recent Innovation Challenge creation is PocketMate™,
a device designed to provide an easy way to carry and
store personal items such as identification and money,
and for secretly storing tracking devices to protect
children and loved ones. TEF has entered into a development
agreement with Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE:AVY)
to develop PocketMate™.
During their internship, students will conduct focus
group discussions and analyze markets. Outside speakers
and Seminars given throughout the session will focus
on relevant topics including group dynamics, project
management, starting a new company, product design
and financial management.
A broad spectrum of business issues will be discussed,
ranging from polymer chemistry and patent law strategy
to business ethics and deal structure.
At the end of the program, students will write a comprehensive
business plan and present it to TEF and Roanoke College,
which just partnered with TEF in May to form the Center
for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Innovation.
Blum is looking to this program to provide new ideas
for business and industry. “Hopefully, the program
will help fuel the next generation of entrepreneurs
and inventors,” he said. “Graduates entering
today’s competitive business world must embrace
and understand the importance of innovation and how
to implement it.”
About the Egg Factory
The Egg Factory, LLC, is an organization dedicated
to the creation and development of significant consumer
and industrial innovations. The company creates transformational
technology and global innovative solutions and then
sells or licenses them to Fortune 500 companies,
and private equity firms for their commercialization.
Since its founding, The Egg Factory (TEF) has provided
a number of significant innovations to large global
companies and private equity firms including: e-Vision,
(electro-active focusing optics technology for the
correction of presbyopia) to Johnson & Johnson;
AgroShieldTM , (polymer technology that protects
crops against loss due to freezing temperatures)
to a private equity group. TEF recently formed an
alliance with Avery Dennison to develop PocketMate™,
a product intended to provide a unique, hassle-free
means for carrying and storing personal or valuable
items, such as identification and money, and for
secretly storing tracking devices to protect children
and loved ones. Today, TEF has more than two-dozen
innovations at various stages of development. For
additional information about TEF, and its innovations
visit www.eggfactory.com.
