April 2015 Open meeting
The April meeting was dedicated to member topics.
Carl Papa, the TIA presidnet, writes the following: Our meeting last month was as active as ever! Since there was no scheduled speaker we drew on the mini presentations of our members to ignite discussion. I lead the mini presentations by bringing everyone up to speed on Pin High Pro. I told of my three trips to Florida in three months to attend trade shows and meet with a golf corporation that focuses on teaching golf. This corporation is interested in adding my swing aid to their product line. Contracts have not been signed yet, but I wanted to share my successful and not so successful moves to arrive at my current juncture.
Richard Steinle gave a brief presentation about his idea to have inventors produce a short, comical, informative video about their idea or invention. All of the snippets will then be combined to make one video about inventors that will be aired on TV. If you are interested, Richard can be contacted at SBAHQ.COM.
It seems like every segment of our society has a week or month in which they receive individual attention/recognition. Believe it or not, May is Inventors recognition month. I like the idea and hope Knoxvillians will see the attention focused on inventors and if they have an idea or invention that has been living in the recesses of their mind will seek us out for assistance. We are still hoping to increase membership! So if you have ideas to grow our membership and are willing to serve on a small committee, please contact AJ or me and we’ll hook you up with others interested in the same objective.
Finding speakers has been difficult! I planned to have the manager of a local marketing company present this month, but so far I have not received confirmation. I also have a backup from a second marketing company, but I have not had confirmation from them either. We have a very special speaker lined up for August! Vig Sherrill, A scientist, entrepreneur, and successful businessman will speak on Graphene. Graphene is one atom thick, if you can wrap your mind around that, when refined is much lighter than steel, stronger than steel and conducts electricity better than copper. Vig’s company refines Graphene.
I have received information on other potential speakers, but none are confirmed, so if you have suggestions please send them my way.
When I was approximately 7 years old my parents wanted me to play a musical instrument. I must have been watching Lawrence Welk or a similar show because I chose the Accordion. I only weighted about 65 lbs. and the Accordion weighed about 30 so it was heavy and sort of dorky, and I would rather play ball and climb trees, so music lessons didn’t last. Why do I mention this brief window into my child hood? May also happens to be National Accordion Month!! Go figure! If I stuck with the lessons I could be opening our monthly TIA meetings with a little Beer Barrel Polka!
