The Main Hall - Geekdom Event Centre
131 Soledad St., San Antonio, TX 78205
Monday, October 17, 2022
Startups, Are You Ready?
When it comes to launching a startup, there are so many different aspects of business a founder needs to be thinking about.
Some of these include marketing, sales, finances, business formation, cofounders, PR, pitching and so much more.
Join us for this session (led by San Antonio startup community members) that will focus on the topics founders should be thinking about when they're launching a new venture.
This event will be hosted in an Ask Me Anything format, come ready with questions you have about starting a new business!
Spend the Money Fast: How to validate your marketing strategy before you go broke.
How you spend your marketing dollars early on and the speed with which you gain traction are critical to the success of your startup. This is true whether you are self-funded or working with investors. Lara August shares her experience as a marketing expert and angel investor to help startup companies avoid common mistakes in the early stages of marketing their companies.
Lara is the Founder and CEO of Robot Creative, with more than 25 years of marketing and branding experience. Lara’s achievements have earned her recognition as “Innovator” from the National Association of Women Business Owners, Young Entrepreneur of the Year from the SBA, an Outstanding New Business Leader by the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and one of San Antonio’s “40 under 40.”
Lara has been involved in the start up community for more than 15 years as an angel investor, advisory board member and mentor for several programs including TechStars and the Trinity University VMS program, and she regularly receives top mentor recognition by a vote of the TechStars founders.
Lara shares insider knowledge about the concerns investors have for each stage of your start up marketing (from the initial pitch to building your team to actually launching, testing and scaling your campaigns) along with seasoned marketing advice on how to approach these challenges.
Fireside Chat with Raul Lomeli-Azoubel, Co-Founder and Chairman of Welcome Tech
Always enlightening and entertaining, Raul Lomeli brings us up to date on how Welcome Tech sees the U.S. Latino cohort and creates new opportunities for the multigenerational immigrant communities. Learn how Welcome Tech continues to stimulate the U.S. economy and what new products they are introducing! From stories of building the company in San Antonio to raising capital from investors like Softbank, Raul will provide great insight into becoming a premier fintech company.
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Advancing Health & Human Performance with Robotics AI
Southwest Research Institute is developing technologies that enable people and robots to work together via algorithms and hardware designed to improve human performance and health outcomes. This panel will discuss SwRI’s work in biomechanical analysis, digital diagnosis of major illnesses, and solutions that leverage collaborative robotics for safer work environments. Some of SwRI’s research entails collaboration with San Antonio-based universities, research institutions, military bases, and corporations. The growth of the robotics industry in San Antonio combined with the robust healthcare sector and local academic investments in data science mean there will be new opportunities for entrepreneurs to leverage institutional innovation. What does that mean for the San Antonio region and future companies that will be needed to integrate all the science into user-friendly applications for healthcare, sports, and manufacturing settings?
Startup Fundamentals: How Strong is Your Foundation?
Panelist:
- Lucy Adame Clark, Bexar County Clerk
- Renee Watson, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Department
- Ryan Salt, Launch SA, Director
- Dr. Shantana Robinson, MFAD Creative Group
- Moderator: Margaret Wilson-Anaglia,
LiftFund Women’s Business Center Director
- Format: Q&A (Questions will leave attendees with information they can use!!!)
Urban Future Lab: Civic Engagement & The Future of South
Dr. Antonio Petrov
Urban Future Lab at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Associate Professor and Founder
Since 2015, the Urban Future Lab has operated in partnership with UTSA’s College of Architecture, Construction and Planning, functioning as an applied research, experiential learning, and engaged scholarship lab and interdisciplinary think/do-tank lab to engage the brightest design-oriented students from UTSA and beyond.
In this session, the Urban Future Lab team will discuss past and ongoing research projects centered in civic participation and engagement. Additionally, we'll introduce the Future of South project, which focuses on our region's future, carefully exploring it from both sides of the border, connecting, rather than separating, previously hidden, yet geographically, economically, architecturally, and culturally logical relationships.
In collaboration with scholars from both sides of the border, the goal is to create awareness for “seeing” South, not in the form of vision or imaginaries, but how it manifests in how we connect. While the idea is to activate the palpable absence of the geographic, which is currently abbreviating the flow of social, economic, and environmental systems between San Antonio and Northern Mexico.
In the big picture, we imagine forming a new megaregion “South” of the existing Texas Triangle, which currently connects Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. The South Triangle could connect Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi, and Monterrey, combining two triangles and forming a megaregion of more than 35 million people with the San Antonio-Austin area at its center.
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
The Founder’s Guide to Funding
What type of funding is right for your company? Should you bootstrap, find angel investors, go straight to a VC firm or look into taking out debt financing? Learn the pros and cons of financing as you navigate your startup’s journey.
Competing for the future: It's about people, not just technology.
The future won't be determined by technology alone. It ultimately comes down to the choices businesses, governments, academia, labor unions, and societies as a whole make. At the center of these choices, you have visionary entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs who have the agency to shape the world. But what drives them? What is their purpose?
Beto reflects on his motivations, choices, and purpose in this talk. Where he highlights his journey as a San Antonio tech entrepreneur navigating the social impact space. From launching the 311SA App that has impacted thousands of residents in San Antonio to work with the U.S. Air Force or climate resilience efforts on the east coast, Beto makes the case on why we should foster innovation that addresses social challenges.
Breaking into Fintech
As a session overview, the group will be discussing their journey of breaking into one of the hottest VC backed themes, fintech. The conversation will be guided by 2 different experiences, one breaking into the industry as a career, and the other navigating the industry to found not one, but two fintech companies.
Doing Good by Doing Business: Impact Entrepreneurship
A panel discussion exploring what impact entrepreneurship/building a social enterprise looks like.
Featuring for-profit and non-profit founders focusing on different social impact areas, using different business models, all with impact at their core. Discussing revenue models, grants, fundraising, pitching, experiences and differentiating yourself as an impact founder.
How does that help or hurt? How do you run an effective business model with impact at its core? How do you generate & measure ROI both financially and in your impact? Stories & anecdotes on challenges they've faced, and what they see happening in the future.
Thursday, October 20, 2022
B2B Marketing in a Recession
Recessions can be great opportunities to grow technology companies as businesses look to optimize processes and streamline their technology stacks. These three strategies can be used by B2B companies to support their efforts as they grow during this economic downtown. Join the team from TINT as their specialized marketing team discusses their roles, including Partner Marketing, Value-Add Community-Led Marketing, and ABM Field Marketing.
From Deck to Deal
What is the journey to getting your startup funded? How do you connect with Angels, VCs, and other funding networks?
What are the essential tools you need to raise capital? Come and hear from experts about getting the deal done right.
Fireside Chat with Judge Nelson Wolff & Randy Smith
Join Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and Randy Smith, chairman of Greater: SATX and president of Weston Urban for a lively fireside chat. Judge Wolff is retiring at the end of this year after 50 years in public office, but it’s his journey as an entrepreneur and advocate for innovation and tech that will be the focus of this conversation.
From Founding to Exit: Lessons Learned From Exited Founders
Hear from a panel of exited founders from the San Antonio community as they walk us through their startup journey, and share strategic advice for early founders.
The Importance of Food in Our Community
Fireside chat with Gigi Kamali-Robinson and Chef Elizabeth Johnson.
Gigi and Elizabeth will be discussing the importance of food and its affects on our digestion, mood and community.
Friday, October 21, 2022
Redefining the Startup Founder
What comes to mind when I say founder?
Redefining Professionalism: Through the Echo of Voting Rights and Mobilization
In a fireside chat setting Social Media Influencer -Saadia Mirza and Executive Director of Black Freedom Factory, Kimiya Factory will embark on a stimulating discussion at the peak of historical voter suppression in the state of Texas: Voting Rights.
These Women will discuss the in's and Out's of creativity and innovation in getting voters to the polls via technology and influence in a way that incorporates a multi-generational approach.
What is the key to keeping the conversation going? These experts believe Redefining Professionalism.
San Antonio’s Smart City Roadmap
What’s the future of technology in our community? Join Emily Royall, Smart City Administrator at the City of San Antonio, and Geoffrey Urbach, Senior Smart City Manager for a conversation about the role technology plays in our community and how the local start-up ecosystem can get involved.
Moderated by Paola Fernandez of Able City
Monetize Your Creative Skills w/ 13-Year-Old Teresa Melvin
As independent artists and creatives, finding ways to make a living with your craft can be tough. There are a million ways to expand your craft and audience – and that can be daunting and super complicated. 13-year-old Teresa Melvin is an artist and creative storyteller using NFTs to build a community of fans and appreciators that can own a piece of the story by collecting her art.
In this fireside chat, we'll hear from Teresa, her parents Melvin Thambi and Nimmy Melvin, and fireside moderator Anthony Rose – four creatives that collectively, have impacted almost every crossover of Arts and Technology.
Join Teresa, Melvin, Nimmy, and Anthony for this unscripted fireside chat!
About the Speakers
Anthony Rose is a graffiti artist turned interdisciplinary artist and creative strategist helping brands transform environments into art-driven experiences using art and technology. Anthony is the founder of the Houston-based global experiential art studio, UXD. He's also shamelessly fantastic at Disney karaoke trios with his wife, Tabitha, and daughter, Penelope.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyjamesrose/
Teresa is a 13-year-old visual artist and creative storyteller using NFTs to build a community of fans and appreciators that can own a piece of her stories by collecting her art. She has been featured at NFT NYC, Miami NFT, the San Diego NFT Conference. She collaborates with several brands and has sold out of almost every NFT she has ever released – epic!
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresamelvin/
Melvin is a Creative Director and NFT Artist guiding many globally renowned brands by finely coalescing elements of Art & Design. He's developed sustainable creative communities that supports artists – across all genres – by helping them transform their passion into tactile prosperity and empowering collaboration.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/melvinthambi/
Nimmy is an award-winning visual artist with an MFA and an international arts tutor at Nimmy's Art – a comprehensive online art class teaching kids creative skills and self-expression globally. Nimmy’s works have been exhibited in the U.S. and India. In 2018, she won the People’s Choice Award for her painting “Cityscapes” and won the State Award by Kerala Lalitha Kala Academy in 2009.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimmymelvin/
Together, Teresa, Nimmy, and Melvin are known as the #NFTFamily
Incubating Youth Entrepreneurship x Design
Ever wondered how to harness the talent and creativity of young people for social impact? Join us for an opportunity to explore and experience Youth Entrepreneurship x Design, HFLI's youth development initiative which prepares young people to make a positive impact in their community through immersive learning experiences grounded in design thinking, entrepreneurship, and leadership. You will have the opportunity to try out a design thinking activity and understand the tools and resources you can use to bring this powerful approach to youth in your community. A live panel discussion will share the voices of young women who experienced this approach as Latina Leaders x Design participants in San Antonio this summer, along with their program leader. These Latina Leaders will share their journey, showcase the results of their work to date, and provide perspectives on how their experience has connected to community and leadership while fostering entrepreneurial skills and mindsets.