(Check it out in vivo: @hilarysinger.)

Also, if you’re in Edinburgh, check out Tom’s work at the Edinburgh College of Art degree show. Obviously, Tom’s the best artist there, but there are loads of other interesting things to see as well.

Of course, that meant we had to produce our own promo video. I did the shoot yesterday using the Flip, edited in iMovie, and then had the final version up on YouTube within an hour. I am so impressed with that little Flip camera. Here’s the results:

After an introduction to entrepreneurship support at Edinburgh, six teams of students each came up with a new business idea and pitched it to the audience.

The ideas all fit into one of the six categories for the Business Idea Competition we’re running. This year, students will be awarded specific prizes for arts and culture businesses, social enterprises, e-commerce sites, product design, science or technology-based businesses (including software), and new ideas in retail. I’ve put up a page on LAUNCH.ed with all the details about the competition.

Anthony raised some interesting points, and clued us all in to some current trends in product design. Anthony’s lessons:

1. Don’t wait for your idea to be “perfect”. You’ll never get there, and while you’re busy perfecting, you’ll probably miss your market opportunity.

2. Prototype early. Your prototype need not be complicated. We all made paper models of the ideal wallet tonight. Paper was an excellent medium–it was easy to see new innovations (flip-out card holders, superslim styles, mini-organisers, etc.), and to get an idea of what it would be like to use such a wallet.

3. Business ideas are easy to find–ask anyone you know. Anthony pointed out to us that we’d all come up with a new innovation tonight just by talking to someone else about their problems. In this case, our conversation was restricted to their complaints about their wallets, but even that limited conversation contained plenty of fodder for innovation. Anthony said, “ideas don’t come out of thin air.” It was a nice reminder that a creative mind can find fuel for a business idea in many of the people, objects and systems around them.

I gave another brief Prezi presentation tonight too. I find it’s much faster to knock up a quick presentation in Prezi than in PowerPoint. Here it is.

You can click on “more” to view the presentation in full screen. I’ve also enabled free exploration of the presentation, so you should be able to fly anywhere you like and click on any of the links to find out more.

As always, the next point of call if you have any questions is to check out the LAUNCH.ed website.

If you missed it, here’s Preston’s original YouTube request, complete with my video response.

If you don’t want to post a video response (mine took me ages—I guess I’m just webcam-shy!), post some suggestions for Preston in the comments under the video!

Anyway, here’s what he said:

“Could I trouble you for…

a plug on your blog?

Your blog is obviously gaining some popularity [see, I told you he was funny]…  And I was wondering if I could possibly trouble you for your help… (Yes, this is shameless self-promotion. Feel free to shrug me off… but I’m a big believer in networking.)

I’m working on a project where I want people to respond to this video: and tell me things to do. (Hopefully things that will open peoples’ eyes to all of the great things you can do on our awesome planet… and hopefully not too many silly “eat dog food” requests.)

Any chance I could get you to be more amazing that you already are and help a brotha out?”

With flattery like that, how could I resist? So please, help a brotha out, and send Preston a suggestion. And watch for my own video response soon….

Here’s the general theme I made for this year’s University of Edinburgh round, thanks to a very helpful Photoshop tutorial website.

Watch for more details about the competition soon!