As the Weiss Tech House continues to move ahead with its invention contest, industry leaders have come forward to offer tips and suggestions about how to bring ideas to the market.
The University's invention hub invited QVC Director of Vendor Relations Marilyn Montross to speak about her company and the marketing of new ideas. QVC -- a shop-at-home network -- is sponsoring the contest, known as Pennvention.
"The spirit and act of mentoring is a nice business tool," Montross said at the casual dinner for approximately 30 students.
"The Weiss Tech House is fascinating to me. I hesitate to call it a club, but the mentoring part is tremendous."
Already in its third year, Weiss Tech House was created to encourage and support students and their innovative technologies.
"We're a student organization -- here to help students learn about entrepreneurship and let their ideas take place," said Weiss Tech House Mentoring Committee Chairwoman Leyu Ong, a Wharton and College senior.
Student attendees said that they learned a lot from the event.
Engineering senior Nick Kopec enjoyed hearing interesting facts about QVC, which sells 3.1 items per second over the Internet and is the third-largest television network in America.
Montross "is very full of facts ... very interesting statistics I didn't realize before. I enjoyed it a lot," said the mechanical engineering major. Kopec was also one of 60 who learned about the filtration process from Montross in a product design class lecture.
"Marilyn [Montross is] a very engaging person. Everyone seems to like her," Engineering junior Jim Bowles said.
"Pennvention is a viable way to go out with any ideas," the Weiss Tech House member added. "The invention process is a lot closer than it may have seemed before."
According to Weiss Tech House director Anne Stamer, QVC's sponsorship of Pennvention was natural, given that "they have such a foothold in product development."
