"Guitar Star" competes for $100,000 BDC Grand Prize for Innovation - Lee's Music designs a product attuned to the market

KAMLOOPS, BC, May 30, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - Canadians can now vote for  "Guitar Star", the innovation project proposed by Lee's Music, one of eight finalists competing for the $100,000 Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) Grand Prize for Innovation.

Mike Miltimore has applied the experience gained in his family music business to designing a better guitar.  "Over the last 150 years, guitar-making has copied a single innovation," he says.

Miltimore and his team changed that when they developed an innovative guitar with an adjustable neck joint. "The new patent-pending design we conceived fixes issues around tension and tuning that guitar players want fixed," he explains. "It's a better-sounding guitar and more robust."

The team has taken its innovative concepts one step further by developing new manufacturing techniques that streamline guitar-building time from 100 to 24 hours.  "We are ready to scale up our operation and launch our guitars to retailers throughout North America," adds Miltimore. "We are also looking into licensing the design."

"I would like to congratulate Mike for bringing his project to the finals of the BDC Young Entrepreneur Award contest," says Michel Bergeron, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Public Affairs at BDC. "It is now up to Canadians to choose which project will come to life in the next year.  Every vote counts towards the Grand Prize!"

"All traditional acoustic guitars suffer from the same problems," says Miltimore.  "We have the cure.  And best of all we can manufacture the guitars using spruce, cedar and big leaf maple wood supplied by local sawmills and employ people right here in Kamloops.  Vote to help us bring innovative Canadian-made guitars to the rest of the world!"

"All the finalists competing for the Grand Prize for Innovation have projects with a solid potential to generate growth and prosperity. The eight finalists have proven that they have ability to run a successful business and to establish themselves as thought leaders in their industries," adds Bergeron.

Voting for the 2012 BDC Young Entrepreneur Award contest runs from May 30 to June 19 and the general public can vote once a day.  To support your favourite innovation project, log in to the dedicated microsite or vote directly on Facebook at BDC Entrepreneur.  Frequent contest updates will be posted on Facebook,  Twitter at @BDC_News and LinkedIn.  The BDC Young Entrepreneur Award winner and runner up will be announced on June 25.

About the BDC Young Entrepreneur Award contest
Created by the Business Development Bank of Canada in 1988, the BDC Young Entrepreneur Award contest pays tribute to successful Canadian entrepreneurs between 18 and 35 years of age.  For the first time in 2012, the contest will see finalists competing for the BDC Grand Prize for Innovation which will award $100,000 to one young Canadian entrepreneur to carry out a specific innovation project. The Financial Post is the exclusive media partner of the BDC 2012 Young Entrepreneur Award.  The contest is sponsored by Les Affaires.

About BDC
Canada's business development bank, BDC, puts entrepreneurs first.  With almost 1,900 employees and more than 100 business centres across the country, BDC offers financing, subordinate financing, venture capital and consulting services  to 29,000 small and medium-sized companies.  Their success is vital to Canada's economic prosperity.

Maria Constantinescu
Advisor, Public Relations, BDC
514 496-7146
[email protected]