What, You Don’t Have Any Good Ideas?

[UPDATE: We are aware that the application for the Pitch It competition is not working properly at the moment.  What great timing. Sorry!   If you have any trouble submitting your idea, email all the information directly to me (brian [at] ifocos dot org) and I will make sure your entry is recorded and you are considered for the big prize.  Thank you for your understanding.]

I don’t think you have any good ideas.  Nothing.  Zero.  Nada.  Zippo. There, I said it.

If you had any good ideas, you would have already entered them in the WeMedia Pitch It Challenge.  We’re looking for commercial and non-profit venture ideas and will award up to $50,000 in seed funding to the innovators who can bring the best ideas to life.  Its so easy.  We have over 100 entries, but I haven’t seen yours yet.

The deadline is tonight – Wednesday, January 21, 2009.  Go for it.

Don’t you have an idea for the future of media?  I do.

Haven’t you had thoughts about how to use technology to improve our society?  I think about it constantly.

Don’t you think the next billion dollar generating, world-changing, paradigm shifting, awe-inspiring, jealousy-inducing, recession-proofing product or service is out there waiting to be launched?  I know it is.

What are you waiting for?  This could be your chance to get your great idea funded.  This could be the moment you help to launch the next great innovation of our time.  This could be the way out of that job you hate (whoops! I can’t say that).  This is your opportunity to change the world.

So, make it happen.  There are two ways to participate.

1. Enter the We Media Pitch It Challenge. If you’re a finalist you’ll pitch your idea live at We Media Miami in February before the leaders, innovators and investors of the connected society. A panel of judges will select the two best ideas – one commercial, one non-profit. We’ll invest up to $25,000 in each to help them turn the idea into reality. We’ve partnered with Ashoka’s Changemakers, a global network of social entrepreneurs, to help us select the finalists.

Hurry! The entry deadline is tonight — January 21, 2009.  To enter the challenge, Click here.

2. Display your business, project or concept in the Pitch It Gallery at We Media Miami. You don’t have to enter the challenge to display at the conference. Just register and reserve your space. There’s no additional fee to reserve a space in the gallery (beyond the normal conference registration fee) – but the gallery has limited space and we are just about at capacity.

To register and reserve your space, click here.

There is more information here if you need it.  Just remember, the deadline for the challenge is tonight, so log on and submit your idea for a chance to receive $25,000 in seed funding to make your idea a reality.  And then we’ll see you in Miami in February.

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Brian Reich

Brian is Managing Director of little m media which provides strategic guidance and support to organizations around the use of the internet and technology to facilitate communications, engagement, education, and mobilization. He is well known for his expertise in new media, web 2.0, social networks, mobile, community, ecommerce, brand marketing, cause branding, and more. Reich, the author of Media Rules!: Mastering Today’s Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience (Wiley 2007). He blogs at Thinking About Media and contributes as a Fast Company Expert. Previously, Reich was a principal of EchoDitto, one of the most successful online communications agencies in the nation, Director of New Media for Cone Inc, a brand strategy and communications agency in Boston and a Senior Strategic Consultant and Director of Boston Operations for Mindshare Interactive Campaigns, an interactive public affairs agency. From 2000 – 2004, Brian ran how own strategic communications firm, Mouse Communications. Reich has worked in and around politics, including helping to direct dozens of campaigns across the country. He spent two years as Vice President Gore’s Briefing Director in the White House, handling both official activities and activities during his 2000 presidential campaign. Brian serves on the board of Investigate West, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to the art and craft of investigative and narrative journalism. Brian served as an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in Washington, DC and is currently teaching a course on consumer behavior and marketing at Columbia University in New York. Brian attended the University of Michigan and is a graduate of Columbia University. He and his wife, Karen Dahl, live in New York City with their son, Henry.

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