This fair is for business only. So there will be lots of resellers that will be able to take a first hand look at the Kymera Wand and another new product of The Wand Company. If you’re there too then just go to hall 5 stand EE52 and say hello to the conquerors of the Dragon’s Den.

The booth looks very comfy, like the study of Sir Richard Barons. Hope the two have a great time there presenting their products and talking to potential wholesale customers.

The Dragons were left spellbound by duo Richard Blakesley & Chris Barnardo and their universal remote control which looks like a magic wand.

Well done Wand-Makers, I hope the investor money will allow you to continue to invent and create such awesome products. All the publicity through the show should empty your stocks quickly.

You can see the video here:

If you don’t know Dragon’s Den Show on BBC TWO – here is a short description from their website:

First launched in Japan, Dragons’ Den is now an international brand with versions airing in countries across the globe.
Entrepreneurs pitch for investment in the Den from our Dragons, five venture capitalists willing to invest their own money in exchange for equity.
Since series five, the five Dragons have been Duncan Bannatyne, James Caan, Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis.

What you can see on the show

• Chris and Richard entering the scene via some dark stairs, perfectly dressed
• asking for a 200.000 pound investment for 10% share of the company
• quoting Arthur C. Clars third law of prediction:
  “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
• pointing to the really large and still growing fantasy market with the likes of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and such
• presenting the wand and accessories by letting a large black silk cloth slither down
• Richard: “looks pretty much as you expect for a wizards wand”
• “being a real wand it actually can do something”
• letting it play Harry Potter theme on an iPod touch deck
• controlling volume by turning it, switching tracks – and making the investors smile
• telling them it could control anything in their house
• Richard shows controlling TV, fans and even lighting a candle
• the history of business, started in September, by Christmas 10.000 units sold.
• ask for money, expertise to take the company to a 18 million GBP company over the next three years
• they hand the investors the wands to have a try for themselves
• we even spot one of the rare dragon serpent wand stands that was designed by Chris (I got one of my own)
• James Caan wants to know what is behind the magic
• the infrared emitter tip is supplied by one of the largest remote control manufacturers in the world
• the wand also contains a universal remote control chip for learning and sending the codes
• meanwhile the others look at the beautifully laid out manual
• its gesture based approach is compared to the Wii-remote
• with its internal orientation sensor it always know which way is up
• Chris refuses to say what the next product is – but it is awesome, so stay tuned
• “and it’s all based around magic?”
• Richard answers that TheWandCompany will become a brand for all sorts of surprising and magical products
• zoom in to the wand and dragon wand stand
• the Dragons are clearly absorbed by the product
• Duncan wants more information about the inventors
• they tell about their electronics company (where they met) that already sold (about 2 mio) advanced remote controls and embedded displays before
• speaking again about sales they were asked about prices
• impressive margin, great product, Chris and Richard are clearly doing well in the Den
• then Theo asks them about revenue and profits, he is wondering what they want the 200k for if their numbers are already that rock solid
• Deborah talks about the Harry Potter movies, of which the last two will air this and next year
• Chris speaks about people who like fantasy and wizarding things and of the appeal to people who play online games like World of Warcraft and the like, also about other fantasy themes like Narnya and LotR
• the wandmakers speak about deals with Target (US) and the Sky magazines of airlines
• Duncan is the first to break the ice, he offers 600k for 30%
• Duncan being dubbed “Voldemort” by “Hagrid” – Peter who offers 200k for 25%
• then the game starts with Theo asking them “what would make them happy”
• and Deborah offers half the money for 10%, ask they asked for 23% and two dragons
• James sat there listening and as he likes the product and the wand makers he offers what they wanted 200k for 20% later scaled back
• after the real time discussions of 2.5 hours have been cut down to five minutes for TV, Duncan increases his offer substantially and gets accepted
• Now there is money and a strong business partner to look forward to

The awesome GBP 900.000 (in sum) offer got quite a lot of press coverage

• Daily Mail – Dragons’ Den panel in record £900,000 bidding war for the ‘Magic Wand’ they think could replace your remote control
  

  It’s just the thing that Harry Potter could use while watching TV at Hogwarts – a wand that changes channels or turns down the volume at the flick of a wrist.
  And this buttonless remote control certainly seems to have magic properties because it has just attracted the largest investment in the history of Dragons’ Den, BBC2’s entrepreneurial reality series.
  Chris and Richard have already sold more than 20,000 Kymera Wands since the launch in September last year and it is now on sale in 41 countries. They expect to turn over £2million in the next year with the help of Duncan Bannatyne.

• The Guardian – The most successful Dragons’ Den pitch ever?
  

  It sounds like the far-fetched plot of a fantasy movie: crazy inventor enchants dragons with magic wand. But on last night’s episode of Dragons’ Den that is exactly what happened.
  Barnado reckons he has been inventing since the age of 14, when he wrote to Tomorrow’s World with an idea for an artificial limb controlled by nerve impulses; more recent brainwaves include a new form of cheese packaging, a one-piece baby- bottle – and a scatological version of Top Trumps called, er, Plop Trumps.

• Stroke of genius: magic wand entrepreneurs secure highest ever Dragons’ Den investment
  

  Richard added: ”I didn’t expect all five to like the product and I thought we would have some of them saying ‘fine but it’s not my cup of tea’.
  ”They were all pretty good offers so we just picked one.”

• smarta – Dragon’ Den: episode seven, reviewed
  

  That concluded a fantastic spell in the Den for the Wand Company. They left with all their cash, retaining 90 per cent of their business. It makes you wonder if maybe the founders had a few magical powers themselves. Their performance in the Den sure went like a charm…

• Steve van Dulken covers the patent of the Kymera Wand on his Patent Blog
  

  The patent application for the invention was published in May 2010 as Remote control device, in particular a wand.

  I am unlikely to buy it, as I would forget which command meant what. Maybe that is an attraction — different waves of the wand would mean different commands for each person’s wand, making it a truly personalised remote control.

• Technology on MSNBC – Harry Potter-style magic wand conjures big money
  

  The Kymera wand buttonless remote control claims no direct affiliation with J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter empire, but there’s a reason it’s selling like pumpkin pasties on the Hogwarts Express.
  The need for such a product is obvious to anyone who’s endured those Hagrid-sized commercial breaks that muck up each and every ABCFamily Very Special Harry Potter Weekend Event.
  The U.K- based Wand Company’s Kymera wand — that operates via wrist movements rather than buttons — remains one of the website’s top 150 products, out of thousand-plus products ThinkGeek sells.

• Telegraph – Record Dragons’ Den investment for Harry Potter-style magic wand
  

  They expect to turnover £2million in the next year with the help of Mr Bannatyne.
  The Dragon said: “I see the magic wand rolling out very quickly over the next six months and I think it will do very, very well.”

There are lots of comments like

• useless gadget
• I don’t need it
• patent infringement
• how to switch 500 channels
• to pricey
• how to memorize 13 gestures

But I think after you tried it for yourself for the first time you perhaps think differently. And who needs 500 channels and can’t memorize 13 simple gestures?

Some positive comments

• Excellent idea I would love one if you have any going spare. Have you thought about making limied edition versions with different designs of handles etc or trying to approach the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings people to see if they are interested in a specially designed version. Can’t wait to see your next invention
• Well done to Richard and Chris, looks like a great idea! Will be looking out for your next products. Looking forward to seeing your company at the Autumn Fair. Hope Duncan can give you the help you need.
• When you reach 45 years old your eyesight starts to go for close up reading. Most remotes have really small text on the buttons so you’re scrabbling around for your reading glasses or pestering the kids to change channels or operate the TV guide for you. This gadget will be so useful. I’ll probably get one… I hope it works OK! Well done guys.
• I love it…much better than having 4/5/6 remotes sitting around (all needing batteries!!)…If I buy one I think I’ll get hubby to make a ‘holster’ to go on the side of the sofa to hold it..looks like it could be a brilliant invention for those not able to use buttons too….well done to you both and good luck!

And some shots from the video as a gallery

The Kymera Wand is featured prominently as gift-bag item of this years TED Global 2010, which started today in Oxford, UK.

The WandMakers Chris and Richard were happy to provide 800 Kymera Wands as gift to the TEDsters. Here is their warm, welcoming note:

Technology Entertainment Design

TED started out in 1984 to bring people together from these three worlds. Today, these fields have been combined in many fantastic ways, so we were honored when the nice folks at TED invited us to participate in this gift bag. We’ve taken a little of todays technology, applied creative design, and developed a product which has already entertained customers in more than 50 countries around the world.

It’s been a great start for our fledgling company, and we’re really excited about the future possibilities with help from people like you. That’s why we’re delighted to present you with your very own Kymera Magic Wand, and would love to hear your comments, thoughts and ideas – so please drop me a note at chris.barnardo(at)thewandcompany.com, or visit our website here: www.thewandcompany.com

Chris Barnardo, CEO

They created a great looking package specially designed for TED. The same kind of packaging is available for corporate customers that want to give away the Kymera Wand as a gift – to customers, partners or employees.

There are already the first tweets about it:

@PaulRieckhoff
Best gift bag item of #TED: a Kymera Magic Wand-”not a toy, a finely tuned instrument of control” http://twitpic.com/24okbb

Kymera Wand @TEDGlobal2010 by @PaulRieckhoff

@whiteafrican: #TED Fellows can practice their quiddich with their new wand in the Harry Potter dining room. #Oxford http://twitpic.com/24b8xh

Harry Potter dining room by @whiteafrican

@freeworldmedia: Opening up the famous TED Gift bag. The highlight is the magic wand that controls anything from the TV remote to… http://fb.me/CgZcExin

@paulrieckhoff: @thewandcompany Thanks for the cool gift. After some drinks, there will be TEDsters running all over Oxford screaming “Abracadabra”! #TED

@gregorymiller All but the floating candles & white owls at #TED. http://twitpic.com/24×3xl

TED Magic Lunch by @gregorymiller

@giorgiotedx TEDxDubaiLive – TED Magic Wand ,inside delegates bags. Will need to try it on a couple of folks back in #DXB http://twitpic.com/24wcbs

@rodrigocvc: Refeições a la Hogwarts no TED Global. http://bit.ly/a2ECOR (expand) #ted [afichacaiu]

Hogwarts at TEDGlobal

Gift bag contents

Look out for TED content anyway. These are the worlds best presentations on various topics online, collected for more than 25 years and available for free (Creative Commons).

Wishing all TEDsters much fun at the event.

Dear Mr. NeeNaw, we’ve seen your videos –
the Harry Potter one appealed to us greatly,
and we figured you’d enjoy one of these

to the crazy Mr. NeeNaw aka Neelesh.
After some problems opening the package (like a man) he lifts the lid of the black box with sound effects he finds the “big piece of paper” then he figures out that it is a wand but very unlike the HP ones.

His electronic knowhow helps him to find the little piece of plastics that keeps the batteries from conducting and to remove it. “I didn’t read that, I don’t know what it is. It does make magical noises.” Then he reads the instructions aloud anyway – you all know that about the universal infrared remote control that can recognize up to 13 gestures.

We follow him to his “lounge”. He presents the wand again but talks about fake leather of the box and saving cows. But acutally it is Faux Dragon Skin (important difference). After presenting the “nicely themed mass of instructions”, he switches on his TV which is slowly waking up (as all TV’s seem to do nowadays), pulls back to leave the tv guide, double tap to enter it again, changes channels and the like.

“They take a small while to get used to but then they can replace TV, Sky, Apple remotes.”

“The way you program it is pretty awesome, it gives you feedback because you can feel beating it your hand. Which is a very very creepy feeling.”

“I’m very grateful that TheWandCompany sent me one of these, because I love them now. I think it will make a great gift. ”

If you’re in England you’ll receive it within one day.

When my sister is watching crappy music on MTV I can switch it off.

And now I’m going to program it to everything thats in my skull. So I can get up to mischief.

He’s blown away:

It is pretty damn awesome (6 times or so) … I love it.

Coolest thing about the video are the bloopers Like the planes and the wand biting.

I should ask the people that received a free wand from me to do a similar cool video or blog post.

Thanks to all participants. Wishing you luck for the next round of giveaways.

Back in October 2009 Anne-Marie Kovacs of TheSucculentWife wrote a nice post about the Kymera Wand.

We chatted about having a giveaway contest some time in the future, and now with Fathers Day (June 20th) approaching, she took the chance to offer a Kymera Wand for her blog’s readers.

As an avid reader of the Kymera Wand site, you should know how many gestures the wand supports. So hurry up to the post and add your comment to win a wand.

The giveaway is open until June 11th 2010. Wishing you Good Luck.

]]> http://www.kymera-wand.com/2010/05/kymera-fathers-day-giveaway-from-thesucculentwife/feed/ 1 http://www.kymera-wand.com/2010/05/announcing-the-facebook-raffle-winner-christopher-tracy/ http://www.kymera-wand.com/2010/05/announcing-the-facebook-raffle-winner-christopher-tracy/#comments Tue, 11 May 2010 06:35:44 +0000 admin http://www.kymera-wand.com/?p=945 As we just returned from a busy week on Crete,
I was only now able to draw the Facebook Raffle winner.

Congratulations to:

Christopher Tracy

We already contacted him for the details so he’ll soon be a proud Kymera Wand owner.

Everyone else, don’t be sad, there will be more possibilities throughout the year to win a magic wand. We’ll continue to post Kymera Wand news on Facebook just stay tuned. Thanks for your participation.

And you can always buy a wand for yourself.

Happy casting

Michael

]]> http://www.kymera-wand.com/2010/05/announcing-the-facebook-raffle-winner-christopher-tracy/feed/ 0 http://www.kymera-wand.com/2010/05/100th-blog-post-thewandcompany-moved-to-a-new-twitter-account-thewandcompany/ http://www.kymera-wand.com/2010/05/100th-blog-post-thewandcompany-moved-to-a-new-twitter-account-thewandcompany/#comments Tue, 11 May 2010 00:00:52 +0000 admin http://www.kymera-wand.com/?p=928 I just noticed that the wandmakers moved to a new twitter account @thewandcompany. So if you want to follow the news from their workshop just add them to your list of daily updates.

The old account @The_WandCompany is discontinued.

I already changed the twitter widget of kymera-wand.com to point to the new account. So you also stay informed if you visit us regularly.

First I want to thank Chris and Richard for their ingenious invention that has sparked magic not only in my life. To come up with such an awesome product is really a work of a genius. Thanks for being so creative, welcoming, helpful and generous all the time. I really enjoyed collaborating with you guys and am very glad to have two such friends on the British Islands. Please keep up the great work and surprise us now and then.

Yes, it has been 9 months since the Kymera Wand was presented to the public. In September 2009, I contacted Chris and Richard about issues with their site thewandcompany.com for the first time.

I was really exited about the wand and we quickly were on good terms. So we spend a good amout of time in email conversations and skype chat sessions about the wand, the company, it’s development, reselling and other things.

September 2009

Soon I started blogging about the wand, first at the domain wand-control.com publishing press coverage, videos and the manual.

Then I was really impressed as Chris send me a sample wand to take to the JAOO software developer conference to use in my presentation as remote control for my MacBook. I quickly learned the gestures and published a video of controlling Macs with the wand.

I had a local artisan make me a fitting leather sheat for the wand and carried it around all time to show it off. The wand got a lot of attention. Finally I gave it to Kresten Krab Thorup the conference organizer as a thank you for all the great JAOO conferences.

After the conference I opened the forum at this site to give wand owners a place to discuss and give feedback. Unfortunately it never took of (except for spammers), so I removed user self registration.

The Wandmakers also posted the first videos at this time which I happily blogged about.

October

In October we could report the first batch of wands being shipped to customers and published the first user reviews and sightings in the public. The wandmakers created instructional videos and animations that helped in getting along with your Kymera Wand. The coverage of the Wand by PopTech was one of the major public events in October.

November

November was even more excited. It started with a review from MuggleNet and the first mention of the Kymera Wand pockets. Later the month I was among the first that were approached by the wandmakers to become an international reseller of the Kymera Wand. That was sooo exciting. I eagerly ordered my first batch of wands and put up the paypal account (a real pain with bank accounts) and did some promotional stuff. Soon but unexpected the first orders came in. As the last thing in November we covered a press release by the wandmakers Chris and Richard.

December

In December the orders really took off. That was the best month ever, we sold more wands back then than in all other months combined. So we had to restock several times and helped to bring magic to many christmas trees around the world. I hope you all are still happy with your Kymera Wands.
As a service to our customers and fans I translated the Manual into German so that even those wizards that are not able to understand the English can learn to control their wand.

The major digital geek suppliers started to sell the wands as well. The coverage by several pod- and newscasters provided additional publicity.

In December we also did our first Kymera Wand giveaway where we asked you to provide novel ideas for future wand development. That brought us about 50 really comments from which we drew the winner.
There were also three instructional posts that covered resetting the wand and problems with some digital equipment that used remote control sequences as well as general gesture tips.

We could also welcome our most creative and active forum user: Grymmditch aka Paul Higginbotham.

To be continued …

Thanks for coming along and staying informed.

Charlie also presents the Kymera Wand in this unique collection of high quality images provided by TheWandCompany.

You can of course use the categories on the right side if you’re interested in a certain topic about the Kymera Wand.

Buy the Wand and Accessories

• Kymera Wand for just 57,75 EUR (free worldwide shipping)
• Wand Pockets
• Handmade Leather Sheats
• Kymera Wand Stand (it’s still a secret)

Instructions

• Online Kymera Wand Manual (Deutsch, Svenska)
• Resetting your Wand
• Gesture Videos
• Control your Mac
• The Wandmaker On: Getting the Hang on Gestures
• The Wandmaker On: Virgin Cable Box Remotes
• Capture Multiple Signals

Wandmaking

• Transmogrify Your Wand
• Secrets from the Wandmakers Workshop I
• Secrets from the Wandmakers Workshop II
• Secrets from the Wandmakers Workshop III
• Secrets from the Wandmakers Workshop IV

After looking at the impressive infographics and talking with some friends about its implications, I decided to revive the Kymera Wand facebook page, add some more content and try to provide daily or weekly updates related to the wand.

So, if you’re there and want to follow the things happening around the Kymera Wand, this site and more, become a fan.

For all others, don’t be afraid there will be many more drawings throughout the year.

Of course you could also just buy a wand for this incredibly magical price of 57,75 EUR with free worldwide shipping.

But it looked like the name, the wand maker Chris Barnardo used for several years to present his creative projects on instructables.

Thats Kaptin Scarlett for you. And here is how he got his name (from the beautifully made description of the making of theGolden Filigree Dragon’s Eggcase:

After our extensive journey, our supplies were running low and in order to finish the presentation case we used to store and later show the egg, the luscious scarlet velvet lining of my favourite all-weather coat had to be cut up for to make the pillow covering. I made such a fuss over this calamity that the rest of the party nicknamed me Kaptin Scarlet, and name that has endured to this day.

velvet scarlett eggcase box

Of the many projects he presented there, the mentioned one as well as those may be of interest to the dear reader:

• Make a real wand out of paper and glue gun glue which inspired the Kymera Wand
• a magic wand for lumos and revealing your secret charms
• Distress your Kymera Wand
• Make a gorgeous Dragon Egg

Even more projects of the Wand Makers inspiration can be found on the amazing DadCanDo site that is dedicated to parents caring for the fun and joy in the lives of their children.

Especially the Wizadry and Magic and the Dragonry categories offer a lot to the lovers of these fantastic things. But it is worth to explore the whole site for lots of ideas and inspiration.

You can download it from there as PDF and print it after entering your name in the baroque script.

It reads:

Ownership Certificate

This Certifies, that

Your Name

shall henceforth be known as a

Kymera Wand Bearer

and who in time
shall become proficient
in the use thereof
&
know and learn its various
and cunning ways of control

From this day, by order of

Chris Barnardo
Founder

The Wand Company Limited

So you can not only present your ownership of the Kymera Wand in a fitting style but also create a good looking certificate for anyone who gets the Kymera Wand as a present from you. ]]> http://www.kymera-wand.com/2010/03/kymera-wand-certificate/feed/ 1 http://www.kymera-wand.com/2010/03/qcon2010/ http://www.kymera-wand.com/2010/03/qcon2010/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:14:35 +0000 admin http://www.kymera-wand.com/?p=731 Just tweet why you’d like to have one and add the #kymera tag, you can also include a link to this post: http://bit.ly/9f5WQg.

As I sadly can’t visit QCon London this year and add the Kymera Wand as drawing price there, I’d like to do a virtual drawing for a Kymera Wand until the end of March.

That is also a chance for all other people who were not able to attend QCon London this month to enter one of the popular exhibition drawings.

The Kymera Wand is a truly magical device. It allows you to control many of the apparatuses at home using invisible beams of light. It recognizes up to 13 gestures of control to cast spells of all kinds to differnt devices.

(read: It’s a universal gesture based infrared control in the form of a magic wand.)

Just tweet why you’d like to have one and add the #kymera tag, you can also include a link to this post: http://bit.ly/9f5WQg.

One special note: You will enter the drawing as often as your twitter follower count is on the log10 scale.

Examples:

• 1..9 followers = does not qualify
• 10..99 followers = enter once
• 100..999 followers = enter twice
• 1000…9999 followers = enter 3 times
• etc.

Depending on the amount of tweets, I’ll add them to this post’s comments, with the tweet text and your follower count, then I’ll draw from this list.

The winner will be notified by mail or DM and posted here.

Good Luck

Michael

This clever move generated a lot of interest and was covered by all major and minor press publishers. A great step to make the Kymera Wand known throughout Germany.