NKY Talent Shines at Cincinnati Innovates

The second-annual Cincinnati Innovates regional innovation competition concluded Sept. 22 by recognizing 10 winners at a gathering at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Judges for this year's Cincinnati Innovates competition evaluated 301 entries for new company and product ideas to award $80,000 in prizes to the budding entrepreneurs. Northern Kentucky was very well represented in the results.

First place winner was Jocelyn Cates, of Burlington, Ky., who created an online event venue booking website application called Venue Agent. Cates won a $25,000 prize sponsored by CincyTech. 

Cates described Venue Agent as having a mutual cost savings to both the venues and the engaged couples. "Many brides don't know that booking on a Thursday or Friday could save them 50% on their venue — and many venues have a tough time selling off-season dates," she said. "Venue Agent is like the Hotels.com of event venues."

Cates said the funding will help fund a site redesign and formal public launch.

"We have much work to do in order to get ready for a formal launch to the public. We will use the money and the mentorship from CincyTech to gear the site to be even more of a venue 'deal' website, offering venues the opportunity to fill vacancies at their facility while making it possible for brides and event planners take advantage of great savings," she said.

Jocelyn and Joe Cates were not alone representing the state. A team of all Northern Kentucky residents won the $10,000 Northern Kentucky Commercialization Award for their Intellidontic Endodontic File. Winners Alex Frommeyer, Alex Curry, Daniel Dykes and Joseph Schab designed a safer endodontic file that protects patients from nerve damage during root canals. Their award was sponsored by Northern Kentucky ezone, Vision 2015, Northern Kentucky Tri-ED and biologic.

More than 24 million Americans endure the pain of a root canal every year. A root canal, or endodontic therapy, requires a hole to be drilled in the infected tooth to facilitate the removal of infection. To remove infection deep within the canals of the tooth, dental professionals employ an endodontic file. Careful attention must be paid during the operation of this device to prevent perforation of the canal, which can damage nerves contained in the gums and lead to chronic pain for the patient. Endodontic files rely on a rubber marker to maintain a proper working length to prevent perforation from occurring. However, the marker is free to move during the procedure and often does so.

More than 80,000 dental professionals deal every day with the frustrations associated with the inadequate design of the endodontic file used to conduct the procedure. The inadequacies of endodontic files derive from the inability to reliably maintain a consistent working depth via the rubber marker and no means for measuring the depth on the file itself.

The cutting-edge IntelliDontic File features an innovative, integrated locking depth gage marker that enables the ability to accurately retain an ideal working length. The rubber marker also incorporates a measurement scale to allow for quick depth adjustment to obtain the perfect working length. The IntelliDontic File reduces the risk of perforating the end of the canal and can help reduce the pain resulting from Endodontic Therapy. The 24 million annual procedures require multiple files per patient defining a large market. A small penetration of the market for endodontic files can yield significant units of sale. The IntelliDontic File is an innovative solution to reduce risk, pain and time.

The team has already filed for a patent. They also submitted an additional idea for a "Better Baby Monitor." One winning entry is enough — for now.

Other Kentucky entrepreneurs entered their prized ideas as well. Gigi's Fine Food entered their very healthy granola. The HYPE! Community Choice Award of $2,000 went to Dan Calhoun of Northern Kentucky for "RooRoo — In-flight games for airline passengers." The award was determined by ranking and page views on the CincinnatiInnovates.com website.

Cincinnati Innovates was created by a group of individuals and organizations in Greater Cincinnati to encourage and develop entrepreneurship and innovation in the region. The competition offered cash and in-kind prizes to contestants with a connection to Greater Cincinnati who had "transformative innovations."

A team of judges from the venture capital and technology industries, together with the sponsors, selected the winners of three commercialization awards and three patent awards. The commercialization awards were cash prizes to help winners "jumpstart" their innovations. The patent awards were in-kind pro bono legal services provided by Taft, Stettinius & Hollister to help winners legally protect their innovations.

The competition was open to people from the 15-county Greater Cincinnati area. More than 300 people completed online entry forms. Thirty-four percent were women, and 17 self-identified ethnic groups were represented. More than 16,000 votes were cast for the HYPE! Community Choice Award.