About Off the Shelf

Off the Shelf is a FREE networking event for proven innovators in and around the Eau Claire area. It is held 3-4 times per year, and is a casual, social gathering designed for open networking and strategic partnership development. Participants can be as active or passive as they choose.


The event is for the purpose of:

• providing an exclusive opportunity for proven innovators and product-producing businesses to
• build awareness and develop strategic partnerships;
• facilitating relationships that add real value to a business or new venture; and
• making innovators and key businesses aware of emerging technologies.

Presenters have included:

• Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation, Inc. (CATI)
• Adventium Labs
• American Phoenix
• Minnesota Wire
• EnviroTech Coating Systems
• B Able To

Locations of past events have included:

• Galloway Grille
• Mona Lisa's East Room
• Sweetwaters
• Houligans

If you have intellectual property or technology available for licensing and are interested in presenting at an Off the Shelf event, please contact EDC staff.

If you have attended the events and have feedback or questions, you can comment on this blog to let us know about it!

***Please Note: This blog is PUBLIC. The EDC, CATI, and other entites named are not liable for the comments posted on this blog that include proprietary information. If you have questions or ideas that you feel contain proprietary information, please call our office before posting.

Off the Shelf - Who’s Who

In order to fulfill our goals and bring real value to new ventures and growing existing businesses, we have limited the scope of those involved to individuals with experience, expertise, and a high level of knowledge regarding innovation and business growth processes. We hope that by doing this, participants will gain valuable knowledge and make productive connections with others who can help their business move forward.

Those invited to this exclusive networking event include:

• Experienced entrepreneurs
• Researchers and developers
• Investors and financial supporters
• Patent holders in the Eau Claire area
• Local owners/leaders from businesses that produce a product

For more details about the Eau Claire area, the Eau Claire Area EDC and other programs and services offered, please visit http://www.eauclaire-wi.com/edc_service/index.php

Off the Shelf presenter and Eau Claire entrepreneur makes national debut with Lightning Electric Hot Rod

Premier Showing of the Lightning Electric Hot Rod
Clarion Hotel - 2110 Rimrock Road - Madison, WI
June 6, 2009 - 11am - 3pm

A muscle car that doesn’t burn a drop of gas with operating cost less than ten cents a gallon?

Hot rod enthusiast and entrepreneur Mark Kalish, who grew up in Madison and is a 1974 graduate of LaFollette High School, is unveiling his environmentally friendly electric hot rod on June 6, 11-3 p.m., at the Clarion Hotel entrance.

After nearly three years in the planning stages, Kalish said the Lightning Electric Hot Rod (LightningElectricCar.com) will make its national debut as an operational car in Madison. He chose the Clarion Hotel because of its location near the Alliant Energy Center, the headquarters for the 2009 Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour on June 6-7. Kalish will be in Madison to premier the Lightning Electric car on June 6, and will be present during the hours of the premier to demonstrate the Lightning and to answer questions. He will then join the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour which starts in Madison on June 6 and continues through six cities, ending at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, TN on June 13. He will be driving his customized 2009 Chevrolet HHR SS Panel Wagon.

Kalish, a life long hot rodding enthusiast, feels the time is right for an “environmental hot rod”. “Lightning drivers can experience the fun and performance of a muscle car without gas,” Kalish said. The Lightning production model is projected to cost under $20,000, Kalish said, and will match or exceed the handling and performance of much higher priced cars.

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/column/moe/index.php?ntid=453280

Next Event - June 18, 2009

Time: 5pm - ?
Location: Houligan's - 415 S. Barstow Street, Eau Claire, WI
Cost: Free; cash bar, hors d'oeuvres provided


Innovations Presented:

Equipment for the Production of Gelled Simulated Items made from Fruit, Meat, or Olive Purees and the Products Therein.
Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation (CATI) - Racine, WI

These technologies use alginates to create olive or fruit simulated shapes with a celled texture using fruit, vegetable, or meat puree. Vitamins, minerals, or other substances can be encapsulated in the restructured puree form. Dimples on opposing sides of the shapes make the restructured puree form seem more realistic. The technologies provided include the equipment for producing olive, fruit, and meat pruees, and the patents for the puree idea itself.

CATI is a technology transfer and commercialization center located in Southeast Wisconsin. CATI has acquired the above technology and is making it available for review and licensing. To see this and other technologies, visit the SMARTT Network: http://www.smarttnetwork.com/Smartt/a/technology/archive?tech=8


B Able To
Kathryn Rulien-Bareis, President
www.bableto.com

Kathryn Rulien-Bareis started her first business in 1969, her second in 1980 and in 2004 launched her third, B Able To, to encourage more accessibility to visual art. Kathryn has invented and manufactured her first two tools in a line of Universal Design.

She has taught art for over 24 years and continues to teach at DeLong Middle School in Eau Claire, WI. Kathryn has received the Herb Kohl Fellowship Award (2008); the Rockwell Award for Cooperating Teachers (2008); UCP Business of the Year Award (2005); the Micro Business Award from the Eau Claire Area EDC (2004); and the Wisconsin Art Education Association Middle Level Art Teacher of the Year (2000). She graduated from UWEC in 1982 with a BA in art education and in 1987 with a BS in elementary education.

Kathryn will discuss the development of her tools Adapt-A-Cut and Adapt-A-Hold. She will share the obstacles she is facing with packaging, cost-effectiveness and marketing.

For more information about Off the Shelf visit the Eau Claire Area EDC website: http://www.eauclaire-wi.com/edc_service/index.php#offtheshelfeauclaire