Technology Roadmap Yields Interesting Innovations

Our organization recently mounted an initiative to identify and support local people with bright ideas.  The “Technology Roadmap” project has already yielded several significant innovations that could support successful business ventures.  One inventor, for example, has designed a highly efficient wind blade for farm and residential uses.  Another participant is developing a sports bottle made of recyclable materials.

The Roadmap project clearly demonstrates that the Yakima Valley is home to enterprising people.  We received a number of applications to participate in our innovation project and are now working with several inventive people to help them commercialize technologies or move their products towards the marketplace.

Impact Washington (formerly Washington Manufacturing Services) is providing hands-on advice to our most promising entrepreneurs.  They are coaching each roadmap participant and will ultimately help three to four local innovators complete a thorough technology assessment for their products.  This evaluation, called a Merwyn Assessment, provides each participant a clear sense of their product’s market potential.  Merwyn also rates the entrepreneur’s level of readiness and expertise in terms of launching their product.

Each of our Technology Roadmap participants will use the Merwyn assessment as blueprints towards producing or growing their product lines.  Merwyn typically raises a number of issues and obstacles surrounding any innovation and we expect that our local business counseling team will be called upon to address specific challenges along the way.  By surrounding promising people with experienced business mentors we expect to increase participant’s chances that they will launch a successful product or venture.  It will take four to six weeks to complete Merwyn assessments for our Technology Roadmap participants.  Hopefully the assessments will drive entrepreneurial success and become a model for triggering local innovation and economic development.  Stay posted!