We all have great ideas, but would you ever consider asking complete strangers to help turn them into reality?

The whole concept of crowd-funding is so new you may not have even heard of it, but in just five years an incredible $1billion (£600m) has been invested by over 5m people worldwide through the most popular service, Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com).

This money has launched some exciting technology products and is now even making a real difference to small, enthusiastic groups right here in Wiltshire.

The idea of crowd-funding is surprisingly simple – why just ask your friends, family or bank manager to help raise the money to make your idea a reality, when you can appeal to the millions of Internet users? Anybody with a good idea can set up a Kickstarter – sharing a dream with a growing community of everyday investors – investing as little as £1 to support a good idea.

The most popular Kickstarter campaigns will offer incentives to their backers. I helped a previously unknown US tech company called Pebble produce their first prototype ‘smartwatch’ – and received one for my £100 investment. Pebble raised an incredible £6m on Kickstarter and now sells their devices around the world through major retailers – all down to public support. Crowd-funding unites enthusiasts from around the world. In 2011, the Mayor of US city Detroit jokingly promised at a press conference to offer a permanent position in the city for a statue of the 1980s science-fiction film character Robocop, on the proviso that no public funds were spent. This spurred a Kickstarter campaign and in six days enough money was raised to build a 10ft bronze replica of the character. This statue now ‘protects’ the city of Detroit and has become an unusual tourist attraction.

From the cold streets of Detroit, we come closer to home with crowd-funding, where a fast-growing Wiltshire event is looking for additional funds to make it bigger and better. Melksham Comic Con has shown it can successfully outperform bigger, less personal events in larger towns and even cities, but its organisers are now looking for £5,000 on Kickstarter to help fund an extra day.

Hayley Spencer and her team are well on the way to raising this money – which will help to make this not-for-profit event one of the best independently run Comic Conventions in the UK, bringing a new audience to Melksham, without a penny of public funding. Comic fans from around the world, many who have never been to Wiltshire let alone Melksham, are digging deep to make it happen. You can support them at http://www.tinyurl.com/melkscomic