After my trip to Houston, I had newly designed handles that worked with every lid and pot combination I could find, unfortunately they were significantly different from my original design that we couldn't be sure that the design patent we had already filed would cover them. To make sure we decided to file another design patent based on the new design. This was my 2nd costly mistake, but not as costly as not being protected by a patent. No one should think you can head down a path like this and not make any mistakes. The important thing is to use a well thought out methodically approach and make corrections as needed.

The upcoming International Houseware Show in Chicago would be the biggest event of my products short life and could make or break it's market viability. I had most of the pieces in place, the legal protection I needed, a finished product to show and legitimate market research. Now I had to put together a show plan that would help me reach my goal of finding a licensing partner. I was able to select a booth on the outside aisle right across from the food court. My plan was simple demo my product and give away free hotdogs. We purchased a couple of hot plates, hired my father's sign company to print us a couple of banners and purchased 300 hotdogs from a nearby warehouse club. My wife and I packed up the SUV and set out on a road trip, Chicago here we come.

Walking into the McCormick Center was thrilling, daunting and a bit overwhelming. Although she didn't say so at the time, my wife would later admit that she was scared and felt we were way over our heads. I had been to several consumer electronic shows that were even bigger, but at the time I was working for companies that did hundreds of millions of dollars annually. This time it was me, my wife and a little hotdog steamer that hadn't even sold one unit yet. If I had thought about it in those terms I may have turned around and ran home with my tail between my legs, but I didn't. After almost a half hour of searching, we finally found our booth, set up our pots, banners and headed to the hotel to get a good nights sleep, the show would open the next day. 

Up until this point my strategy was to find a company to licensing my product to, that way I wouldn't have to deal with manufacturing, importing and developing distribution channels. The company that made the turkey lifter seemed like a good candidate, since it was started by an inventor many years earlier and manufactured very similar wire based products. I had a good conversation with CEO/ Inventor back in October and decided to send him a follow up email a few weeks before the show. Now it was time to see him face to face. With a show directory in hand I looked up his booth location and decided to pay him a visit. He was very pleasant, acknowledged my email and committed to come by our booth to check out my product before the end of the show.

Our booth was in the "Inventors Corner" a collection of inventors and their products hosted by Inpex. Each inventor got to present their product and get advice from a panel of experts. The feedback I received was consistent, I needed a bigger version to steam more than 2 buns at a time and I needed other food applications besides just Hotdogs. When I got back to our booth a women with a press badge was asking questions, "What's this do?, Is it new?" My answer was "It lets you cook your hotdogs and steam your buns in the same pot at the same time and its brand new, never seen before". She said,
"I'll be right back with a TV crew". I though to myself, yeah right! Five minutes later there was a camera guy and a reporter talking to me about my invention and why not Chicago's a hotdog town. We made everyone in the news crew a hotdog and later that night we watched ourselves on the evening news… WOW!

The next day the CEO/ Inventor from the company making the nifty turkey lifter came by, I told him about the news coverage, explained the concept behind my product and made him a hotdog. He was blown away, I believe he said something like, "you have really got something here, I don't think I could make you rich fast enough". Then he offered to make me a deal, a really good deal and we shook on it. The few hours remaining in the show were a blur, my wife and I were on cloud nine. We thought that we had secured the deal that was going to change our lives forever, it had been a GREAT trade show and now it was time to head home!