Mar28th2007
I got an email from Eric Shafer, organizer for the Houston Web Design Meetup Group that their next meeting will be on April 11th @ 7pm. He went on to say:
Tyson Weihs, one of the creators of http://www.mymetar.com will be joining us to demonstrate the design process of a real, live phone based web site! His site is for pilots to get weather information from any number of electronic devices. A very cool concept. He will be presenting his work and then we will have a cool activity to get everyone thinking about mobile design concepts.
Wear your hip clothes, cause we are stepping out to the Davenport Lounge. It is across the street from the Stag’s Head pub.
This topic was chosen by those at the last meeting. “The world is run by those who show up.”
It should be a good meeting. I already found a new startup from Houston I hadn’t heard about. More soon…
Mar28th2007
The Texas Technology Executives Network (Techxans) is hosting a member reception this Thursday, March 28th and is a good place for technology professionals and executives to network. First time attenders can show up for free, but after that it is $15, unless you are a member.
More details:
WHAT: Techxans Quarterly Members Reception
WHEN: Thursday, March 29th, 2007 / 4:00pm - 7:00pm
Agenda
4:00pm - 5:00pm Introductions to Techxans Membership
5:00pm - 7:00pm Members Networking Reception
WHERE: Polo’s Signature Restaurant (Wesleyan & Hwy 59)
3800 Southwest Freeway, Suite 124 Houston, TX 77027
Shopping Center in-front of The Lakewood Church.
WHO: Current Techxans Executive Members, New Members,
and Technology Executives Who May Be Interested in
Joining Techxans: Texas Technology Executives Network.
If interested, you can RSVP HERE
I’ll be there and will let you know how it goes and who I run into.
Mar27th2007
I just got word that the next Houston NetSquared Meetup will be on Tuesday, April 10th at 7:00pm. The meeting will be at the Stag’s Head Pub (as usual).
For those of you who have not been there before, here is the description from their meetup page:
Social changemakers and technological forerunners come together at Net Tuesday events to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and reinforce the online NetSquared community (netsquared.org).
You can find out more here.
Mar26th2007
I found this information over at the Houston Inventors Association site.
“AMERICAN INVENTOR” , The ABC primetime reality show is returning for its second season, and will be in HOUSTON to host open auditions soon…
WHEN: April 15th - 8:00am
WHERE: The Berry Center, 8877 Barker Cypress Rd., Cypress, TX 77344
ADDTL INFO: AMERICAN INVENTOR will visit six cities with a panel of judges for open casting calls to meet inventors from all over the country. The competition is open to individuals or teams of inventors, and all ages are welcome.
The judges will finally narrow the field down to the six finalists who will each be given $50,000 seed money, and time to develop their ideas. Contestants will be given guidance from experts, but in the end, it is up to them to decide how to take their product to the next level. America’s votes will help select the winning inventor, who will receive $1,000,000.
What more inspiration do you need than that !?
For more information: www.americaninventor.tv/information.html or Call (888) 703-7728
Good Luck!
Mar20th2007
I got last minute notice yesterday that Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress) was in town last night at the Stag’s Head Pub and had to be there. I’m glad I was. There was a great turnout (about 40 people or more) and Matt had a lot of great info and input about everything WordPress and even answered some of my questions about what more we can be doing here in Houston. Below are some of the observations I made and notes I took:
Matt on WordPress:
- Looking to make WordPress more like FireFox where it serves as a foundation and the community contributes great plugins
- WordPress is so popular that many publishers are looking for more people to publish books on the subject (hint, hint)
- Matt feels that WordPress is also a great platform for CMS and is interested in seeing if more people use it that way
- Some people from large companies were asking when Automattic is coming out with an enterprise version of WordPress. It seems that their companies were hesitant to adopt WordPress as their blogging platform or CMS until it had an official “Enterprise Edition” sticker on it. Matt referred to KnowNow who offer the KnowNow WordPress Enterprise Edition (KWEE). He said it costs a lot more than “free,” but this might be a good fit for larger companies.
- Questions on video. He felt that managing video was “hairy” and for now was probably better left to a central service like YouTube, etc.
Matt on what can be done to help create a more favorable environment for developers and startups in Houston:
- Matt said that when he was in Houston he was able to leverage HAL-PC to gain free exposure to lots of technology and that really helped him.
- When I asked Matt what else we could be doing, he said that providing people more information about what is going on and what resources are available to them is a big help, so I will be redoubling my efforts to keep everyone better informed.
All in all, I met a lot of great people and look forward to trying to help pull together Houston’s resources to help promote small and startup companies in the Houston area.
Let me know if you have any other great ideas !
Mar17th2007
I recently attended a seminar put on by the Greater Houston Partnership entitled “Bag the Elephant,” which also featured the author of the book, Steve Kaplan. The seminar focused on how smaller companies can successfully pursue larger companies (the elephants). I have attached my notes for those of you who are interested and included some highlights below:
- The number one marketing tool suggested by everyone is Networking (ie. attend as many events as possible)
- Big Companies want to work with smaller companies for the following reasons
- Smaller business advantages
- Lower overhead structure
- More agile and flexible
- Less expensive
- Provide “Fresh air” and new approaches
- Key things to be aware of when dealing with big companies
- Know Who does what
- Who buys
- Who influences
- Who Kills* (one of the most important things to know)
- The Supplier Procurement Program
- How to talk the talk
- Unique language
- What terms do they use to reference different things
- Create an Elephant to english dictionary
- This is a list of terms that is unique to each company/prospect
- Use terms Internally & With the customer
- Using the customer’s terms in your daily conversations with internal staff get’s everyone on the same page
- Leverage your knowledge
There is a lot more detail in my notes such as Top Secrets to Accelerating business growth, Cold Calling techniques, and more…
Mar14th2007
I recently attended two wonderful events for energy technology companies.
First, was the HTC Energy Venture Forum, held at the Hyatt hotel downtown. The company I am with, VisionMonitor, was one of 45 other companies giving presentations to the investment community to potentially get additional funding. It was also a good marketing opportunity as several energy company representatives were also in attendance. Hopefully we are doing well enough that we won’t need to go back next year, but I highly recommend it for any energy technology company that is looking to get funding and improve their visibility in the energy community in Houston.
Second, was Microsoft’s Energy Forum 2007, held at the Marriott Westchase. I will definitely say that Microsoft knows how to put on a good show and this one was no exception. I saw attendees there from every major energy player, whether or not they have offices in Houston, and their vendor booths were sold out well in advance of the show. The keynote speaker was the CEO of Shell Oil, the luncheon speaker was James Baker III, and the closing speaker was an editor for the Wall Street Journal. If you are a technology company that provides solutions for energy companies, this is one show that I would not miss the opportunity to sponsor. Most of the sessions were good as well (I liked BP’s the best, where they showcased Microsoft’s Sharepoint integration with Biztalk, InfoPath and Virtual Earth), although it seemed that several of the speakers and topics changed at the last minute, which I thought was kind of odd. All in all though, a great show, and one that we will definitely attend in ‘08.
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