TXST to host monthly innovation series

Texas State University will kick off the Texas State Innovation Series this week at The Science, Technology, and Advanced Research (STAR) Park with Paul O’Brien, CEO of MediaTech Ventures and facilitator of innovation and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Central Texas. 

On Thursday, O’Brien will present on the topic of entrepreneurial communities and economic development. 

“There’s, you know, a lot of rich information from Paul O’ Brian, who has been very active in the Central Texas entrepreneurial community for a decade now,” said Sean Bauld, Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Texas State University. 

The innovation series features interactive presentations and panels led by diverse experts and networking opportunities with other entrepreneurs, students, faculty, staff, innovators, executive and subject matter experts. 

“It’s an opportunity to kind of go deeper and explore rare resources that might be useful for me. Maybe I have an idea, maybe I have a startup. Maybe I know something about intellectual property and I’ll meet somebody who’s looking for help with intellectual property,” Bauld said.  “We do emphasize networking, we do emphasize the ability to just learn from each other, as well as lettered from these great speakers.”

While the series is hosted by the university, it is not limited to Texas State students. 

“This is for everybody, this is for people from the city,” Bauld said. “This is for people familiar with economic development. This is for people with co-working spaces, startups, people with innovative ideas.” 

The program highlighted this month is the Center of Excellence for Community Health and Economic Resiliency Research (CHERR). 

According to the event website, “Due to the rise in catastrophic environmental and population health events occurring around the world and the heavy effect it’s had on the well-being and quality of life for Texans, CHERR’s work on fostering knowledge and skills needed to help communities prepare, adapt, and recover from public health emergencies and natural disasters has never been more important.” 

This will be the first session of the year and the first one held in-person since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Each month will spotlight transformative initiatives and provide connections to funding sources and local activities. The initiatives highlighted this month are sustainable energy solutions for smart cities featuring ClearWorld, LLC. 

Sessions will be held on the second Thursday of every month at STAR Park, located at 3055 Hunter Rd. For this month’s session, the event will start at 4:30 p.m. with the presentation and Q&A starting at 4:45 p.m.

To register for this weeks’ session or for sessions at a later date, visit www.eventbrite.com/e/txst-innovation-series-entrepreneurial-communities-...