Friday, March 11, 5 p.m.

Not My Job: The Ultimate Content Strategy Smackdown

This panel, hosted by Kristina Halvorson (Brain Traffic), Lisa Welchman (WelchmanPierpoint) and Nathan Carson (EightShapes) will discuss cross-content strategies of web pages and the like.

Friday, March 11, 5 p.m.

Block Party Capitalism: Where Analog and Digital Intersect

This panel will explore the evolution of the digital world from a business perspective, so that we buy and sell more effectively. Hosted by John Gerzema (BrandAsset) and panel including start up founders, large companies and local entrepreneurs who work at the intersection of this analog and digital movement.

Friday, March 11, 5:30 p.m.

Design Workshop: 80 Challenges To Sharpen Your Design Skills

Need innovative ideas for interactive products and services? David Sherwin has you covered. The Frog Design author will draw on concepts from his recently released book Design Workshop: 80 Challenges To Sharpen Your Design Skills for the expert in you.

Sunday, March 13, 12:30 p.m.

Design-Driven Innovation: How Designers Facilitate the Dialog

Carola Thompson (Mind Jet) and Jim Nieters (Yahoo) host this event on the facilitation of design group workshops in order to help collaboratives generate new creative ideas that will shake up the market.

Which panels are you most excited for?

In honor of Go Texan Day and embracing the honorary Texan spirit, Ah-Ha! Creative has put together a mini contest.

We’re inviting all our H-town pals to submit their favorite chili recipe by 4pm on Thursday afternoon. We’ll gather all the entries together and post them online for an open public vote Friday morning. Check our twitter stream or Facebook fan page that morning to get the link to vote. Voting will end at 11:59pm Friday night.

Submit your recipe here:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHNqTVp5Zi03eXpTMUM3azBIUHJKZWc6MQ

Then, on Tuesday March 1st, to celebrate the kickoff of this year’s Rodeo, we’re hosting a chili tasting of the top 3 recipes with our friends at Colab & Primer Grey. They’ll be helping us choose the official winner of the best chili, but we’re inviting all of you to stop in for lunch between 11:30am-2:30pm at Primer Grey HQ for chili, cornbread, iced tea and dessert (yes, FREE FOOD).

Please RSVP here if you plan stop by so we know how much grub to make:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=190621774304356

We can’t wait to see your smiling faces. And hopefully you’ll be dressed like cowgirls & cowboys with us since it’s Rodeo time.

The prize?… Ok, ya there’s always a prize. Besides bragging rights, the winner of the best tasting chili gets a $25 gift card to Armadillo Palace & everyone who submits a recipe gets a free download of our virtual chili cookbook. We’ll email it to you shortly after the contest & it will include the top entries so you can try making them at home on your own!

We Heart Our Loft Space. And you can, too!

Primer Grey + COLAB = PGCO.
And #PGCO is looking for some rad loft mates to share our work days with.
Yup. We’ve got space available in our Erie City Ironworks Building in the Arts Warehouse District of Houston.

The total square footage of our beloved loft is more than 1600 sq. ft. with a large full kitchen with coffee machine, full bath and shower, storage area, TV and conference table (great for presentations), and an awesome patio, all shared downstairs.

Your space would be upstairs and is made up of an apprx. 200 sq. ft. open office area and 75 sq. ft. enclosed space. It is large enough to accommodate 2-3 people’s desks/workspaces (previously 2 people shared the space).

The loft is located near downtown across from Dakota Lofts and around the corner from Last Concert Cafe at 1305 Sterrett St.

Our community is filled with Artists, Photographers, Video Professionals, and friendly neighbors.

The price is $650 a month plus 1/3 of bills (your share would usually be about $100), high-speed internet, bi-weekly housekeeping, exterior maintenance, and bi-weekly recycling pickup. The space currently has 3 desks and chairs available for use, or we can remove if you have your own furniture.

You could move in immediately, but we’d like to find someone by March 1, 2011. First month’s rent at move in, and we’d ideally like a 6 month commitment.

A little about #PGCO:
The loft is currently home to Primer Grey, a marketing and web development agency (www.startwithgrey.com) and COLAB, a PR + Events agency. We are all creative and enjoy coming to work in this space. We work very hard and are very respectful of one another’s work habits, client meetings, use of shared space, etc. We also play hard and like to socialize both in and out of the office. We are lovers of dive bars, cheap beer, good music, great food and fun.

You just need to be friendly, communal and looking for a positive, productive space to do great work. If you are looking for space and think you’d fit in with our little family, drop us a line. We’d love to meet you!

More pics of the space here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=185936&id=664856809&l=b5b2b1e1f1

Contact cliff@startwithgrey.com to come see the place. We know you’ll fall in love like we have.

On February 10, we were thrilled to celebrate Azur West’s grand opening with owners Nick Brines and Greg Decker. The sophisticated new salon is the first and only Shu Uemura Sanctuary Salon in the country, which embraces the Japanese hair care product philosophy of nature, art and science.

The event welcomed 300 guests including local fashion favorite Chloe Dao, the Houston Ballet’s Jo Furr, Jean Maye and Joanna Hartland. Food and beverages included complimentary wines by the Wine Sisterhood of Canopy Wines, a specialty Zentini cocktail themed by INOA – the new haircolor revolution by L’Oréal Professionnel – and savory treats by Eddie V’s. Guests marveled at Neal Hamil models who were fully clad in Asian-inspired geisha hair art by Azur West Haigo Artists and makeup by Jen Marine and Sarah Tucker.

We would like to sincerely thank all of our sponsors, including: Any Occasion Party Rental, Canopy Wines, Eddie V’s, Toosies, and West Avenue.

Recent Press:

• Culturemap.com - Enter the hair Sanctuary: First Shu Uemura Azur West salon unveiled at West Ave
• HoustonPress.com – New Houston Salon Azur West Is the Third of Its Kind in the Nation
• Examiner.com – Azur West: a Shu Uemura salon combining luxury with the art of hair in West Ave
• Houston Register – Dime Piece: Houston’s 10 Sexiest Salons

File this one under RAD!

COLAB was recently nominated in the The Businessmakers Radio Show’s Business Maker of the Year Award in the Rising Star category. Thanks for all of your votes. We are beyond thrilled to be among some of Houston’s best entrepreneurs.

We love this city and are lucky to be working with some of its best companies.

Big thanks to the Businessmakers Show who consistently highlights the hard-working entrepreneurs of our great city!

We are so proud of our client Ars Lyrica Houston, Houston’s early music for being nominated for a 2011 Grammy for their recording of Johann Adolf Hasse’s Marc Antonio e Cleopatra. It was an honor for the ensemble to be nominated among other prestigious and world famous orchestras.

Here is some amazing coverage of Ars Lyrica’s outstanding acheivement:

• http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/7235056.html
• http://www.houstonpress.com/events/ars-lyrica-season-sneak-preview-1921041/
• http://culturemap.com/newsdetail/12-07-10-violin-virtuoso-and-houston-music-pioneer-sergiu-luca-dies/