Caffe Genius Impressarios

By Caffe Genius

Caffe Genius is all about thinking outside the box, from Experimental Meetup Colaboratories to Pitch Workout Rooms to the Genius Roundtable and more; the idea is to consider seriously the Entrepreneur... more

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FAQs about Caffe Genius Impressarios:

How many episodes does Caffe Genius Impressarios have?

The podcast currently has 173 episodes available.

Caffe Genius Impressarios episodes:

July 28, 2023Episode 0022: Project DTP Retrospective
Show Notes
- Host: Dan Hugo

- Summary: It is important to examine where we have been to be better-prepared for where we are going. Or as many have already forgotten, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.

The Downtown Project
- Dan Hugo was a spectator, always looking in and hanging out, but never lifting anything heavy.

- Day job made for some great connection possibilities

- Still, there are many, many, many people who know more…

The Retrospective
- Which parts of the Downtown Project worked? Which parts did not?

- Comparing Greater Vegas to other cities is interesting, but we have a working model to examine in the same footprint right here in Downtown Las Vegas.

- Outreach for feedback will take time.

Objectives of the Retrospective
- Reach as many people from the Downtown Project era as possible

- Present subjective questions and capture honest answers

- Determine which parts of the undertaking worked, and which parts did not

- Compare subjective data with objective indicators of the time (circa 2013-2018) and up to modernity
...more
24min
July 24, 2023Episode 0021: Conjuring Innovation
Show Notes
- Host: Dan Hugo

- Summary: A follow-up to The Axis of Innovation, should we be building an Innovation Hub, or an Innovation Destination in Southern Nevada? Can we Conjure Innovation?

Recapping The Axis
- Does Southern Nevada Have a Culture of Innovation?

- Does Southern Nevada have Innovation Infrastructure?

- If we build it, do they come? Who are they, anyway?

Clinics and Fusion Centers (circa 2015)
- Bridge small business (especially Downtown Project) to emerging student talent pool

- In the absence of existing, enabling infrastructure (electronics labs, bio labs, manufacturing and fabrication), maybe UNLV (for example) the starting point.

- Enable local and remote talent of any kind to converge on the Vegas area for innovation sprints.

Modernity
- Do companies and entrepreneurs benefit moving to Southern Nevada?

- Should we predict those needs, or focus on existing strengths?

- What are the OKRs for development of an Innovation Hub?

The Missing Pieces
- Education platform could be enabling entrepreneurial innovation rather than workers

- Recognition across the board that 21+ is simply the wrong idea

- Fuel desires to think outside the curriculum

- Recognize thought and implementation leaders of any age
...more
1h 6min
July 14, 2023Episode 0020: The Axis of Innovation
Show Notes
- Host: Dan Hugo

- Summary: The Axis Powers, or the Axis around which an Innovation Hub might rotate? A bit of both, perhaps.

First a Story about Phoenix
- Economic Diversification FTW! But which ways to go?

- Electronics Assembly, Semiconductors, Government Contracting (and Tourism)

- Strangely, the executives with stakes in existing foci, after traveling the world to study other places, realized the foci that had stakes in were the ones to continue focus on !
Our Future Innovation Hub
- Who is driving this?

- Where are the headed?

- Are we invited?
Let us design an Innovation Hub
- It is all about the culture and it begins at age 0

- Make resources available. Imagine LEGOs but for all of your STEAM concepts, and more

- The key factor about Innovation is, you cannot decide ahead of time what it is.
Innovation and Entrepreneurialism
- Like peas and carrots! One need not be both, but it is not uncommon.

- Can we sprinkle either of these on top of an ecosystem and watch the crops change?

- Can we simply import people with these interests and abilities and make that happen?
...more
48min
July 07, 2023Episode 0019: Greater Vegas Wants vs Wonts
Show Notes
- Host: Dan Hugo

- Summary: We sometimes say or hear said, that one´s eyes are bigger than one´s stomach, especially when visiting a buffet. Might the same be said of regional innovation and entrepreneurialism?

Innovative Entrepreneurialism
- Two great tastes that go great together!

- Need not be coincident, but they often are

- Any one person might have this trait (or traits?) but is there critical mass?

Missing a Culture of Innovation
- Individually there may be innovators and entrepreneurs and innovative entrepreneurs

- The Greater Vegas Area does not appear to have a critical mass

- Anecdotally, this is a culture of solipsism, with short-terms personal gains prioritized. This makes critical mass, especially with regard to collaboration, difficult.

Can a Culture be Sprinkled on Top?
- Short answer: No

- Import talent and culture? Only after admitting both are lacking (which they may not be, though…)

- A destination city has KPIs that are very different compared against a city of innovation. The definition of Winning will need to change culturally before it changes economically, and this is a steep climb

Moving Forward
- A culture shift will take another 5-10 years to gain real traction. If it does.

- We must begin with students, high school and younger, and instill entrepreneurial values and basic intellectual curiosity. Teach innovators, not workers!

- Deferred reward seeking and elevated valuation of collaboration are cultural elements to develop at all levels, and these will take more than capital and a few weeks to change.
...more
22min
June 30, 2023Episode 0018: Hacking the Ecosystem
Show Notes
- Host: Dan Hugo

- Summary: It takes more than headlines and likes to change an ecosystem

What is Hacking?
- Collaborative ideation, usually with a time limit

- Open-ended or Blue Sky thinking drives creative outcomes

- Sometimes called a Sprint, they are more and more common

What is the Ecosystem?
- An economic ecosystem is similar in many ways to a biological ecosystem

- Four pillars (this is one opinion, not uncommon but not authoritative)

- Education/Talent Pool

- Government Participation

- Existing and Emerging Communities (Entrepreneurs, Knowledge Workers, Creators, etc)

- Access to Capital

- It is difficult and expensive to change either kind of ecosystem

Greater Vegas Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
- Climax Community: Tourism + Hospitality + Gaming + Entertainment + Sports

- Minor Flora and Fauna: Biotech, Software Unicorns, Manufacturing, Environmental…

- Carrying Capacity: Limited by natural resources in both types of ecosystem, but costs to change are high!

Let the Hacking Begin
- Can we encourage symbiosis? Do we risk pricing out those enabling the Climax Community with smaller gentrifying factors?

- Is the Greater Vegas culture capable of supporting an Innovation Economy at Scale?

- Is there infrastructure to enable research and initial-scale production of outcomes of innovation?

- Are we encouraging aspirational innovators to pursue their ideas regardless of identity, age, status…

- Does Greater Vegas lean toward Elitism, or Egalitarianism? Solipsism, or Altruism? We should know that going in.

- Luckily we need not tackle all of this in an all-nighter weekend hackathon, but we probably don´t have ten years, either…
...more
34min
June 23, 2023Episode 0017: Hacking the Roundtable
Show Notes
- Host: Dan Hugo

- Summary: The second cohort of the Genius Roundtable is coming to an end this month, and so it is time to hack the table and see what we do next.

How it started
- A need to understand the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Greater Vegas by people who are on the ground, being entrepreneurs in situ.

- A companion need, to determine what does and does not work as the ecosystem moves forward with various top-down economic diversity intents.

- Develop this expertise as part of an effort to establish a cadre of Entrepreneurs in Residence, who will have studied the ecosystem and established a working knowledge from experience and examination.

How it goes
- The First cohort was off to a good start, but waned at the end

- The Second cohort has not been as connected

- There is no plan for a Third or Fourth cohort in the current mode

How to Hack a Reboot
- Consensus would be helpful but not necessarily essential moving forward

- Community of Practice seems ideal, since this is not a job, nor a classroom

- Broad goals without task ownership or responsibility reduces the need for accountability

- Actual achievement counts, not the road to it, leaving those seated at the roundtable responsible for their own progress and contribution to the ecosystem and its understanding
...more
36min
June 16, 2023Episode 0016: Trust But Verify
Show Notes
- Host: Dan Hugo

- Summary: There are no show notes today, just listen all the way through.

(I misspelled this person´s name a couple of times, off by one letter, you will still find him if you look, with ease)
...more
33min
June 09, 2023Episode 0015: Let´s Get It Started!
Show Notes
- Host: Dan Hugo

- Guest: Hayden Smith, Esq.

- Summary: So you say you want to start a business in Southern Nevada? What next? The beginning of the story with an attorney who know the way.

Who is Hayden Smith?
- Education, The Bar, The Firm (Marquis Aurbach Chtd.)

- Specialties

- Ever been an entrepreneur?

Where to begin?
- Nevada, Secretary of State, Silverflume

- Structure, Chapters, Reasons

- For profit, Public Benefit, Nonprofit

Around town
- Local business license

- Permits, certifications, finances

- Did we miss anything? Probably.

What could go wrong?
- Fees, fines, crimes

- Inconvenient, or ultimately good for business?

- Attorney, legalzoom, or wing it?
...more
59min
June 03, 2023Episode 0014: Ideation and Innovation FTW!
Show Notes

- Host: Dan Hugo

- Summary: Ideation and Innovation, two great tastes!

What is Ideation?

- Funny word, great ideas!

- Dry Erase Boards are Your Friends

- Do it with a friend…

What is Innovation?

- Ideas that get Honed!

- The steps between the idea and the implementation, focused creativity!

- Where Pivots Happen, sometimes

The Hackathon Myth

- Hackathons are about pizza, redbull, staying up all night, laptops, and apps

- Actually, we can have a hackathon right now, let´s do it! (interactive podcast?!?)

- Hackathons are about Ideation and Innovation, with a mild amount of competitive pressure to encourage creativity and action! Aim for Innovation, not Implementation…

Links

- Neil Gershenfeld: Self-Replicating Robots and the Future of Fabrication https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDjOS0VHEr4
...more
38min
May 26, 2023Episode 0013: There Can Be Only One Dylan
Show Notes
- Host: Dan Hugo

- Guest: Dylan Bathurst

- Summary: Very early a part of the Downtown Project, an early entrepreneur, founder, and early to get acquired when eBay found and wanted Rumgr. Let´s talk about it !

Who is Dylan Bathurst?
- So many Dylans

- The path the Downtown Las Vegas

- What goes on lately?

The Rumgr Story
- The idea

- The VTF/DTP interaction

- The Move

The Downtown Project
- There is a retrospective on the horizon, but what does Dylan think?

- High Points?

- Low Points?

- Would he do it all again?
...more
1h 30min

FAQs about Caffe Genius Impressarios:

How many episodes does Caffe Genius Impressarios have?

The podcast currently has 173 episodes available.