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What is Maker Happy Hour? Houston has a vibrant, creative start-up community that, unfortunately, slides under the local media's radar. To raise awareness of Houston’s growing tech and startup scene, Jeff Reichman launched the Maker Happy Hour, a networking event designed to help creatives make, market, and sell their work.

Could you ask yourself this question? And let's be honest, you won't have an answer. It's not a good one anyway because you will never know until you ask. Funny how that works, eh? If you are a creative, an artist, an entrepreneur, a game-changer, or whatever you like to call yourself, you know that it takes a village.

Unfortunately, Houston does not have an excellent reputation for attracting big shows or talent. Fickle fans, low turnout, poor marketing, and lack of consistency are the usual suspects that make shows hesitate to come here. The city has potential, but it’s an uphill battle.

D3 Performance Engineering is a new automotive shop that provides research and development, product design and manufacturing, engine management, and tuning. Although D3 has been in business for just over a year, it finally held its grand opening. D3’s team members are Evan Davis, David Donnals, and Chris Delgado. D3’s cleanliness exudes professionalism, and the custom fabrication work on many of its display cars is impressive.

Social media is essential for customer engagement, but businesses sometimes neglect their blogs and websites. Social media is a tool that supports the company’s main website. How do businesses keep their social media tools current, cross-promote, and link their digital platforms?

Looking to spice up your ride? Turn heads with Vinyl Werkz's car wrap solutions. Whether you are an individual looking for an affordable alternative to upgrading your vehicle or a business owner looking to stand out, Vinyl Werkz offers the custom options you need.

The Team Mancuso Power Sports Open House and Extreme Sports Show is, based on the name alone, not your average motorcycle expo. While enthusiasts are usually content to sit on a few bikes and give them a quick ride around the block, the Mancuso Show goes one step further by bringing together diehard enthusiasts and living legends in the motorcycle stunt community for a fun-filled, action-packed day, complete with front and back wheelies, skids, high-powered stalls, and other death-defying acts.

Mayday Garage Ricer Wednesday organizer John Peterson lives, eats, sleeps, and breathes rice. Owner of the Ricebox food trucks in Houston, Texas, Peterson helps serve Chinese cuisine daily and organizes the Ricer Wednesday event at night.

Every 6 to 8 weeks, Non-Stop Tuning puts on an event for car lovers everywhere, complete with DJs, enthusiasts, and plenty of auto porn. Non-Stop Tuning designs, develops, and manufactures lightweight engine components for various motorsports. We caught up with the host, Mike, and learned more about this month’s event, which featured the 8-6 automotive chassis—the Toyota FRS and Subaru BRZ. Check out our coverage.

Ignite Houston returned to the main stage Thursday night at Rudyard's Pub in Montrose. Sponsored by our sister site, Houston Business Weekly, Ignite Houston featured some of the city's most awesome orators burning down the stage with hard-hitting speeches, all with the same creative restraint: 5 minutes, 20 slides, 15 seconds per slide.

Whitespace Houston is a community and cultural place where we celebrate the art of doing business". Whitespace offers firms, business development groups, non-profits, and other organizations the opportunity to network, interact, and conduct business in its 14 rooms, including meeting rooms, communal areas, and individual offices.

Houston-based designer Beth Younger Purpich debuted her Longhorn line at Americas Restaurant, benefitting the Texas Freedom Run. The event brought together great bags for a great cause, raising awareness and ending child slavery in Texas.

We first spotted Fred Hamilton’s 1998 Honda Accord at the Non-Stop Tuning Happy Teahouse car meet. There was something special about Fred’s ride when he first rolled in. The large front-mount intercooler, Enkei wheels, and clean exterior stirred our curiosity. We want to learn more about this Accord.

Mayday Garage hosted its first Japanese car meet at The Moon Tower Inn. Pre-1990 Japanese classic vehicles from all over Texas attended the festival and enjoyed some of Texas's finest craft beers.

If you want to do big business, you have to meet big players in prominent places. And there's no more significant place or player than the Microsoft Store in the Houston Galleria with business developer John Whaley. Last week, some of Houston's fastest-growing business leaders, entrepreneurs, and media groups gathered for the Ideas to Action in Business workshop.

If you know the Houston business community, you already know the importance of the Rice Business Plan Competition. RBPC is the world's largest business plan competition, allowing teams to gain first-round funding and VC feedback like never before.

The Houston Area Urban League Small Business Exchange was a refreshing change of pace, where over 100 entrepreneurs networked, learned about crucial long-term business strategies, received guidance to keep their businesses profitable, and where six competitors participated in a Community Sales Pitch for a $5,000 micro-grant.

With coverage in national publications ranging from Forbes to the Huffington Post, the Houston business community is no secret. However, inside the Houston business community, perhaps the best-kept secret is John Whaley. Whaley hosts Executive Entrepreneur Hour on FM 92.1, a show dedicated to bringing together visionary entrepreneurs and executives who understand the art of scaling a business to build a formidable force.

On a cool Sunday morning in late November, we had the chance to catch up with Marc Nathan, a longtime Houston startup scene specialist. Who is Marc Nathan?

Indoor Harvest is a leading full-service design and manufacturing provider for the indoor farming industry. They specialize in plant and produce production platforms and full design-buildouts for greenhouses and building-integrated agriculture.

New York Video is a group of entrepreneurs curating the future of online video. Once a month, Steven Rosenbaum, the event host and M.C., organizes this networking event via Meetup's popular social platform. This month's Meetup was held at AOL's headquarters in Manhattan, with a discounted admission of $10 per person.

Have you ever taken your pride and joy to a performance shop for upgrades, and the shop ends up fucking up your shit? You know what? It's probably your fault. Yeah, that's right — you're to blame, and it's time for tuners to look within, according to Vinny Ten.

Many factors go into building a thriving startup community: events, co-working spaces, media and marketing, talent, access to top universities, and access to venture capital, to name a few. Houston’s young startup scene can use a helping hand in accessing venture capital, and Startup Grind is doing its part to provide a solution.

The Greater Houston Black Chamber (GHBC) marked its over 80-year history in the Houston community by releasing its first edition of the Buy Black Business Directory, which lists more than 500 black-owned businesses. What makes Buy Black different?

The Houston Interactive Marketing Association (HIMA) hosted its second Show & Tell Mixer. What exactly is it? It’s a networking event where marketers present their most successful campaigns. A picture is worth a thousand words, but the video speaks volumes.

The Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP) and the Texas Motion Picture Alliance (TXMPA) hosted a Film Industry Town Hall Meeting to address the issues facing Texas’s film industry. We hoped this meeting would provide solutions, but it fell short of our expectations. Filmmakers wanted a solid plan from their leaders, but got nothing.

What’s the best way to celebrate Houston’s SLAB history? With a procession or parade, of course! The term SLAB stands for Slow, Low, and Bangin. Houston’s 1st SLAB Parade and Festival celebrated its automotive heritage and Hip Hop.

Obsessionz Car Club hosted its first auto show at Top Contenders Gymnastics Academy in Spring Hill. Organizer and car club president Joe Rodriguez is on a mission to become one of the top three car shows in Hernando County. Its mission is to be inclusive and to help end the negativity infecting the car community.

High Tech Connect was founded in 2018 by Zac Duffy and Daniella Diaz to bridge the Tampa Bay technology community. Over the last several years, growth and innovation have been the top drivers of the Tampa Bay area's growth. As one of the top 10 places to live in the country, Tampa Bay is known as “The Technology Hub,” a designation attributed to its advanced technology offerings.

The Houston Social Media Breakfast is a grassroots organization of professionals who meet monthly to discuss social media and its business applications, featuring a guest speaker and, at times, a panel. After relocating to Houston to meet new people, Kami Watson Huyse founded the Houston Social Media Breakfast group in 2009.