Innovation Summit calls inventors

The sixth annual Innovation Summit, together with City of Tshwane, has called for inventors to submit entries to generate creative solutions for service delivery challenges facing the city.

An Inventors' Garage will be held during the summit in August, where inventors will showcase their creations to a panel in the hope of taking their idea closers to commercialisation.

In a media statement, organisers said they hope "to ignite excellence through inventions that can be further developed and implemented to enhance the quality of life for all people in Tshwane".

Participants are required to submit pictures of their invention, design or creation to the summit's Web site to be considered for prizes ranging from R25 000 for the best innovation, to R25 000 for the best mobile application.

While the competition seeks to discover creative solutions to service delivery in Tshwane, organisers hope to unearth sustainable ventures.

Jonathan Darker, executive of the Innovation Summit, urges entrants to think about the wider potential of their ideas. "If the ideas can create jobs, then sustainability will come into play," he says.

Ideas with potential for growth would also go a long way, according to Darker. "We want something that can be scaled up to become something huge," he adds.

Tshwane executive mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa announced in his State of the City Address earlier this year that R2 million will be committed to the Innovation Hub - a body supporting innovation in ICTs, science and technology - to create a platform for communities to identify and develop smart solutions to challenges facing the city.

"This partnership will also provide support to those who submit ideas that are implementable - to us innovation is not just about creative ideas, but the implementation of creative ideas to transform the manner in which service provision occurs within Tshwane," he said.

Judges for this year's competition will comprise funders and incubators and, according to the media statement, they will look for "entries that combine originality with practicality and realistic commercial potential".

Darker adds that a pre-selection process will take place to determine which entries are displayed during the summit. "On the panel, we will also have people with strong financial, marketing and intellectual property backgrounds so entries will be able to get good, constructive feedback," he says.

There is also a chance for unsuccessful entries to enhance their potential, says Darker. "We will be distributing the database of ideas to our various sponsors so that they could look into them at a later stage."

The Inventors' Garage Competition is open to people living in any of the Southern Africa Development Countries and could include individual, group, or company submissions. The deadline is 22 August and more details can be found on the competition Web site.