We've got you covered. You will enjoy getting to see and hear the top names in the entrepreneurial game this coming Tues. + Wed., Feb. 13-14th at our new home The Cannon Houston.


Anthony has hooked us up with one heck of a LIVE streaming of all the speakers on the main stage at Global. (Here's a quick preview or the morning)


      Marc Tarpenning, co-founder of Tesla
     James Park, co-founder + CEO of FitBit
     Guy Kawasaki, chief evangelist Canva

We created this day to be fun and effective. Giving you the ability to co-work and watch the entrepreneurial elite, garnering all the experience and expertise they have to give.
Have you gotten your daily tickets yet? You can attend one day or two, your choice.

About this eventBlockchain, Fintech, Iot, and Mobile are some of the areas of expertise founders and investors are planning to discuss. Current events and how they relate to the startup world are also incorporated into their personal presentations. 
The Main Stage at "Global" features Power Players from tech organizations (Google, PayPal, LinkedIn, and Slack) as well as VC firms (Andreessen/Horowitz, Sequoia, and Greylock Partners). Other Movers and Shakers include team members from HOUZZ, Minted, Intuit, Fitbit, Tesla, HBS, Stanford, 500 Startups. 
There really are too many to mention but you can check out the conference website: www.startupgrind.com/conference//#/code-startupgrindhou
We have a seat saved for you. :)


Every month we invite you to better understand and to embrace Startup Grind’s Values:Give First (before you ask)
Make Friends (not just contacts)
Help Others (before you help yourself)


And to broadcast Startup Grind’s Mission:To Educate, Inspire, and Connect Entrepreneurs
Our global community of 300+ chapters in 115 countries worldwide is here for you. Let us know... How may we best assist you? (I.e. - Can we help facilitate warm introductions to businesses, mentors, and/or investors to grow your startup here or elsewhere?)


Ways You Can Participate this Month:Share Your Message! -  This month exhibit for 1 or 2 days at The Cannon, our official home in Houston. Local Startups are invited to become “Entrepreneur Partners” to demo solutions, meet your team, and build relationships with our ecosystem.  Use this time to get the word out about your company's product or service. Our community enjoys hearing about your team's accomplishments, values or even your needs. This is available to a limited number of businesses, Apply Today!
Listen & Learn - We encourage you and your team to attend, connect and learn from the presenters as well as our local community who are in the room with you. Between impactful sessions, you have the chance to spark interesting conversations and make friends.
Support The Cause - Startup Grind Houston's monthly events are an effective and valuable opportunity to share your brand and message with our local entrepreneurial community. This month, you get even more "bang for the buck." Startup Grind’s events regularly attract many Founders, Professionals, and Investors. This month you get 1 or 2 days of a captive audience in one of the city's most dynamic environments, filled with decision makers and influencers. A day starts at only $250 -- What a bargain!  (Connect Here)


Register Now!Discover opportunities to expand your influence.
Aquire current information from industry experts.
Empower your team to listen, learn and grow.

Houston Young Professionals are invited to join the University of St. Thomas on November 17, 2017 for the Cameron Business Symposium. The CSB Symposium is a one-day conference and the biggest networking event at UST. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to be inspired and learn from Houston’s leading business experts. This event is FREE for guests with promo codes!

This year we are excited to present the Ethical Leadership in Action award to Mrs. Barbara Bush. Neil Bush, American businessman, investor, and son of Mrs. Bush, will be receiving the award on her behalf and providing the opening keynote. 

To join us for free, see the directions below:
-CLICK HERE TO RSVP FOR FREE (the promo code “CSBGUEST” will be automatically applied and will cover the ENTIRE COST)
-Enter your information and select if you are bringing a guest
-Choose which activities you would like to attend (you will have to select the registration fee.) You will not be charged. The promo code covers the entire cost.

November 17, 2017 Schedule
1:30pm - 2:15pm        Registration and Networking at Jones Hall
2:30pm - 3:45pm        Opening Keynote at Jones Hall
4:00pm - 4:50pm        Session 1 at Malloy and Welder Hall
5:00pm - 5:50pm        Session 2 at Malloy and Welder Hall
6:00pm - 6:50pm        Session 3 at Malloy and Welder Hall

Do not miss out on this great opportunity to learn from experts in the following industries:
• Banking and Finance
• Biotech
• Entrepreneurship
• Ethical Leadership
• Human Services Management
• Innovative Business Practices
• Oil and Gas
• Real Estate
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Academic Research

Please direct any questions about our Nov 17 activities to csbevents@stthom.edu.
 
-------------------------------------------------
Activities Coordinator
Cameron School of Business
University of St. Thomas-Houston
romos@stthom.edu | 713.525.6978
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The Fastest and Easiest Event Check-in
 
Introduction
The struggle to win over your guests starts with check-in. Make them wait in line, and their excitement about your event will plummet. Use cutting edge technology to speed up the check-in process, on the other hand, and you can ensure that attendees enter the event in the best possible mindset.
 
Zenus, a Houston-based startup, is bringing its powerful face recognition technology to the events industry. Event planners across the world have started piloting this fresh concept and the results are impressive!
 
Case Study
Event: The International Corporate Event (ICE) Awards was among the early adopters. Specifically, the ICE Awards 2017 took place at the Saatchi Gallery in London, honoring senior in-house events professionals across 15 industry sectors. The event attracted 250 experienced event professionals, 70% of which were in-house event organizers representing 60 companies.
 
Challenge: This year, Anita Howard, the founder and producer of the ICE Awards was looking for something new to impress attendees. However, the venue entrance was narrow and the check-in requirements limited their options.
 
Specifically, the organizing team wanted to print badges for the attendees and also do a brief security check to ensure that only invited guests were allowed in. These requirements, in combination with the narrow entrance, were expected to create long lines. Face recognition technology was a perfect match, and Anita was excited about the concept.
 
Solution: Zenus’ solution can be integrated into existing registration platforms, making the experience smooth for both the event planner and the attendees. Specifically, the ICE Awards used the Ya-Ya Regie online event registration platform which has already deployed Zenus’ face recognition solution.
 
Before the event, the attendees were invited to upload their profile picture and opt-in for face recognition. Behind the scenes, the registration platform (in this case Ya-Ya Regie) automatically stripped the images of any personally identifiable information before uploading encrypted copies of them to the Zenus cloud-based service.
 
The ICE Awards organizers were planning to have two interactive giant tablets for face recognition check-in. However, the hardware supplier missed the two-hour set up window due to an unexpected traffic jam in the heart of London. Nevertheless, the organizers quickly set up the system on their personal MacBook and used this as the check-in station.
 
Results: When the guests arrived at the venue they could check-in either with their faces, or with the traditional barcode scanners. Each attendee who opted for face recognition simply needed to stand in front of the laptop for a moment. The system recognized them immediately, their badge was automatically printed, and they were ready to go!
 
Since the kiosks were next to each other, it was easy to notice differences between the two methods. Guests checking-in using face recognition were impressed and excited about the technology. Many of them were event planners who unsuccessfully tried to confuse the system by making funny faces. Some of the attendees took out their phones to record the process, while others remarked about the process with the people standing next to them. In addition to making a great impression and increasing engagement, check-in using face recognition was four to five times faster than the traditional barcode scanning.
 
After the event, a record number of inquiries to try face recognition for events was received by Ya-Ya Regie.
 
Summary
Face recognition has many benefits for both the event planner and the attendees. It lives on the cloud enabling it to run on any device, so no special check-in devices needed. It is fast, easy, secure, and affordable. Like most new services, some people might be reluctant to try. However, we have found that people quickly gain confidence in this fresh concept. Social media and online payments are similar technologies where a modest critical mass paved the way for much larger future growth.
 
To increase the opt-in rate, communicate clearly to your attendees that the data is being treated in a safe manner (all images are anonymized, encrypted, and also deleted after the event). Moreover, keep in mind that face recognition can work in parallel with traditional check-in methods to satisfy everyone. Even if only a fraction of attendees opt-in, it will be enough to have a significant effect on reducing waiting time in lines.
 
It is always good to have backup devices in case something goes wrong. Even though the internet requirements are relatively low, make sure to secure a private network for the face recognition system.
 
The ICE Awards case study demonstrated the benefits of face recognition for check-in. We are expecting to see more and more events implementing this fast and cost-effective option to process large number of attendees. We are also looking forward to more case studies about different use cases such as tracking attendance for multiple sessions and leads retrieval.
 

​Trend3r (pronounced “trender”) is a Houston technology company that has evolved from a traditional digital marketing firm (formerly known as PVW Marketing) to a tech startup that brings its clients the latest and best tools that visualization industry has to offer. We took the harder route and decided to grow our company organically from the grass roots and so far, it has been an exciting and rewarding journey. We are local to Houston and we take the time to get to know our community and to understand the needs in the Houston market to ensure that our services make our clients’ lives better. We utilize the best among the latest technology tools for visualization to help our clients enhance their business experience and make their work easier. We actively participate in conferences and educational efforts to help people embrace, understand and find practical uses for different visualization technologies.
 
Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) are the three terms describing visualization techniques that trace their conceptual ideas back to the 1800s but only started receiving significant attention and fascination from people over the last three decades. Deeply rooted in the gaming industry, these technologies began finding their way into practical business applications during the last decade gaining more traction since 2015 when the first Samsung Gear VR device was released to the public allowing for easy and affordable access to VR content. Since the first Gear VR device many more came and even more are in the production pipeline to be released in the near future. The technology that once was a prerogative of sci-fi movies and fiction is now becoming a part of our day-to-day life and sets the standard for running a business better.
      
Trend3r is an experiential innovator of the 3D modeling technology. The firm brings the latest and best virtual reality and augmented / mixed reality tools to its clients to help them visualize their ideas and projects before significant investment is made in production / creation. Trend3r also helps document and capture existing projects and sites to help clients showcase their work and market it.
    
The technology used by Trend3r has applications in nearly every industry. Our early adopters include builders and developers, aerospace companies, non-profits and educators, artists and gallery owners, building owners, commercial real estate brokers and property managers, architectural and design firms, furniture dealers, manufacturers, and the list goes on.
 
We are looking for more collaboration opportunities from businesses who are interested in implementing the latest visualization technologies into their business model and setting themselves apart from the competition through innovation.
   
Trend3r is located at 1022 Wirt Road, Suite 326, Houston, Texas 77055. For additional information, call Maria Shumilova, the company COO at 281.606.9369, email  maria@trend3r.com or visit www.trend3r.com.

Sean Gilmore, now a Junior at Strake Jesuit, invented, as a sixth grader, a “Slumber Separator Tent” that sits on a bed. He called it “The Sleepover Bed Tent”. Flash forward to today, and Sean is running a thriving business. He recently negotiated a partnering relationship with a major hospitality group.
 
Sean is a successful graduate of the Young Inventors Showcase (YIS), now in its 30th year. YIS is a STEAM-based curriculum, taught in K-8 classrooms, that leads students through the process of inventing. The program is taught as an in-school lesson plan during the academic year, or as a five-day summer camp. In a typical year, 20-25 schools participate throughout the Houston Gulf Coast region, with 2,500 students presenting their inventions in preliminary competitions. Approximately 60-70 inventors make it to the finals, held on the third Saturday in May. This year, the finals were held at River Oaks Elementary on May 20th.
 
The entire YIS program is driven by a core group of volunteers, as follows:

• A customized YIS Summer Camp curriculum, led by Mariam Manuel,

A well thought out judging "rubric", training, scoring, led by Mary Kurtz and Butch Graham.

• NEEDED: A dedicated judge recruiter and coordinator.
• A parent "idea to market" training workshop, which runs concurrently with the judging, led by the team of Dr.Martin Lindenberg ( Entrepreneurship Director, University of St. Thomas), and Shareca Valliare  (Director of Success 4 Kidz and Vallaire's).   
• Program Management, including finals event planning and coordination, led by Max Martin, YIAA Executive Director
• Patent/IP filing and legal support, led by Brandon Leavitt of the Eldredge Law Firm, which has established precedence in its annual contribution of up to six free patent filings.
• Our Young Inventor, "Shining Stars" program, led by:

Sean Gilmore,  see video:

• Growth team in place, as we have cemented our Executive Director, Max Martin, assisted by Lamar University.

 
“Our YIS program is poised to see tremendous growth, both here in the US, and internationally”, said Greg J. Micek, Founder. “We have recently aligned with Lamar University to launch the program into the Beaumont area. Also, Lamar has a satellite program, based in the United Kingdom, which will allow YIS to have an international presence.” See: www.tablet-academy.org.
 
"It has been my pleasure to work with and for the Young Inventors Showcase, over the last few years,” stated Max Martin. “Nothing comes close to the personal gratification I've received, from witnessing these young students presenting their projects for judging. Innovation and invention-ism are the way forward in the 21st century. Come join us, as we open the doors for young students world wide." Mr. Martin is the CEO of Smart Kids Software, which is now in its 20th year in business offering an array of educational and STEAM-based technologies to teachers all over the US. See: www.smartkidssoftware.com.
 
The Young Inventors Showcase was born from it’s parent, the Houston Inventors Association, which was itself launched by Greg J Micek in 1983. For the complete history, see: