2006 Calendar Be involved with the emergence of an organization which will change Austin! The Austin Inventors and Entrepreneurs Association (AIEA) has been formed to offer education, support, and developmental guidance to inventors and entrepreneurs who have unique ideas. -- Join us! January February March April May June July August September October November December Click on the month for details When: 4th Wednesdays of the month Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 Featured agenda 8:00 PM - Join us for a happy hour social at Cool River Location: Austin Public Library - Milwood Branch (behind Cool River) 12500 Amherst Drive Austin, Tx 78727 Should an individual or an organization consider presenting at one of our monthly programs. Please send your request to info2222@austininventors2222.org.

January Topic: How to Raise Money From VCs Speakers: Bob Bridge, CEO, Zilker Labs This presentation will describe the VC business model, discuss what VCs look for in start-up, and provides a cook-book for the money raising process. Speaker: Bob Bridge, Founder and CEO of Zilker Labs, a VC-funded semiconductor start-up company. Bob has raised $28M in five VC funding events since 2000. Bob has been in management, marketing and engineering roles at semiconductor and system companies for 29 years, including serving as founding CEO at three technology companies. Bob has also served as an entrepreneur in residence at Austin Ventures, vice president of marketing at Agere (the network processor startup) and vice president and general manager for communications ICs at Crystal Semiconductor/Cirrus Logic. Additionally, Bob has held engineering and management positions at Motorola, AT&T corporate headquarters and AT&T Bell Labs. Bob holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas. January 25, 2006, 7:00 - 8:00 pm

February Topic: Cash is King Speaker: Jack Locy Financial spreadsheet tips for high tech business plans. The natural flow of data from the Revenue Plan, to the P&L, to the Blanace Sheet and Source and Uses of Cash (really Funds) are much easier to visualize and implement with the workbook model available in Excel and others. Jack is a seasoned CFO who shares his insights and experiences with regard to the ins and outs of startup financials. Jack has been active in the Austin startup community for years. He has a long and impressive career but here are some highlights: Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from UT MBA from the University of Michigan. He enjoyed Positions with GE, TRW, TI, and a variety of venture capital partnerships in Dallas and Austin. CEO and Chairman for Teccor Electronics who he took public. Chairman and President of Centurion Computers (a division of EDS) Served on the board of directors for four national banks. Active in technology-based companies for 20 years Served as CFO and/or board of directors for 12 companies CFO for Crossroad Systems Director of UT Technology Development and Transfer Conducted a technical entrepreneurship courses in the UT College of Engineering February 22, 2006, 7:00 - 8:00 pm

March Topic: Reclaim Your Time! Speaker: Maura L. Nevel Are you having trouble staying on top of your email? Do you ever check your voicemail hoping, just for a second, that you don't have any? Do you feel like you're drowning in paper? Professionals today are increasingly asked to move faster and do more, and many people are bucking traditional corporate life in favor of entrepreneurship. But we are also dedicated to a balanced life and time with family and friends. This creates more communication, responsibilities, and commitments than ever before. Not to mention an endless to-do list. It creates and environment where we spend all of our time being reactive, and very little time being proactive. The result is that although we seem to be busy all day, in truth we get very little of that important stuff done. Attend the presentation "Reclaim Your Time!" and learn a few of the secrets of peak personal productivity. Maura Nevel founded Burget Avenue Services (www.burgetave.com) in 2003 out of a passion to help entrepreneurs and small business owners. Maura's experience in organization and efficiency comes from over 10 years in the productivity training industry, directly and indirectly teaching individuals and teams how to efficiently and effectively get things done. March 22, 2006, 7:00 - 8:00 pm

April Topic: SBIR Coach Speaker: Fred Patterson As national commercialization funding experts, we guide entrepreneurial businesses into the Major Leagues of technology commercialization. We specialize in the SBIR Program, concentrating on Phases II and III. And, as The ETF Coach, we also support the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.   SBIR Coaching: The Secret of Success In Winning SBIR Federal Grants for Small Business doing R&D Everyone knows that the SBIR game is competitive. The type of small business that wins a federal grant for innovation in research is driven by excellence. All serious athletes have coaches to help them be successful in their quest to win. So should serious seekers of Federal business grants for SBIR STTR funding (grants and contracts - not loans) that currently total over $2 billion a year.     April 26, 2006, 7:00 - 8:00 pm

May Topic: Factoring Speaker: Artie Berne, Director of Business Development, Performance Capital ARTIE BERNE, Director of Business Development for Austin/San Antonio area, grew up in the New Jersey, New York area, attended the University of Hartford receiving his Applied Science degree. Moved to Phoenix, attended Arizona State University obtaining Bachelor’s Degree in Analog and Digital Telecommunications. Employed in that field as an Applications Engineer, consulting-selling Fiber Optic Laser based systems/components for several Fortune 500 and start up companies. As National Sales Director for MRV Corporation his responsibilities were to hire, train and manage direct, rep and distribution sales forces. Most recent position in the industry was Vice President of International Sales and Marketing for Avrio Corporation, a company specializing in optical transceivers. Since 2002 has been developing and consulting in Real Estate and Mortgages for residential and commercial properties. Currently Artie is finding and cultivating factoring opportunities for Performance Capital. In this presentation you will learn about: 1) The history of Factoring 2) What is Factoring 3) What type of companies use Factoring 4)How will Factoring Benefit your company 5) Why Factoring is booming 6) Bank Underwriting 7) How does Factoring work 8) Steady Cash Flow 9) Flexible Line of Credit 10) No minimums no MAXIMUMS 11) Mitigating Factoring Fees 12) Purchase Order Financing 13) Inventory Financing May 24, 2006, 7:00 - 8:00 pm

June Topic: IP Law Speaker: Steve Sprinkle, Intellectual Propoery Lawyer. Steve, along with several other lawyers, founded Sprinkle IP Law Group in June 2004 to provide a focused intellectual property service designed to create valuable patent portfolios that can generate revenue for his clients. Sprinkle IP Law Group concentrates on two primary areas of patent law: 1) obtaining patents and managing patent portfolios and 2) generating a return on his client’s patent portfolio investment through various enforcement mechanisms, including licensing and litigation. Prior to starting Sprinkle lP Law Group, Steve was the partner in charge of the intellectual property section in the Austin office of Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich. Steve had come over to Gray Cary form Baker & Botts to help open the Gray Cary Austin office in 1998. He has worked with technology companies throughout his twelve year legal career, and was an engineer at Texas Instruments for five years prior to attending law school at the University of Texas. For the last nine years, while continuing to provide intellectual property services to Fortune 100 clients, a significant majority of his clients have been start-up technology companies that have raised capital in a variety of ways to pursue their business ideas. This talk will focus on various proposed changes in the law (e.g., Patent Reform Act of 2005) and changes in the rules at the USPTO (e.g., see attached) that will affect those seeking to obtain patent protection and to enforce those patent rights against infringers. We will also discuss various other factors (e.g., Patent Trolls, Intellectual Ventures, Eastern District of Texas) that are driving these changes. The point of the presentation will be to give inventors an idea of how the landscape is/will be changing for better and worse for them vis a vis obtaining/enforcing their patent rights. June 28, 2006, 7:00 - 8:00 pm

July Topic: Austin Small Business Development Program Speaker: Vicky Valdez, SBDP SBDP stands for Small Business Development Program. We provide counseling and assistance to small businesses. Our focus, as our name implies, is to develop and empower small businesses in order to strengthen their business capability and survivability. Our goal is to help you succeed in today's business environment!     Vicky Valdez, Senior Coordinator of Development Information Resources joined the City of Austin’s Small Business Program (SBDP) in March of 2001 after working in the City’s Planning Department for two (2) years. She currently manages SBDP’s Business Solutions Center and works with an array of customers, from all walks of life, while guiding them through the process of starting their small business or expanding their existing business. Prior to that, she was Deputy Director for a local non-profit agency where she held the titles of land developer for the agency and lead project manager for all of their construction projects. She has over 15 years of commercial and residential construction experience. Additionally, under her belt, she also has six (6) years experience in owning her own small construction company. Vicky has an undergraduate degree in Engineering from Texas A&M University - Kingsville and a MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Aug Topic: Getting a new electronic product from design to hardware Speaker: Don Coplin We will discuss the process for getting a new electronic product from design to hardware. I will integrate information on the tools that an EMS company uses TXP-Texas Prototypes can help turn your New Product Introduction (NPI) into reality faster than any Electronic Manufacturing Services provider. Our core business model is focused on Quick-Turn Complex Electronic Assembly Prototyping for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM’s), Original Design Manufacturers (ODM’s), Contract Manufacturers (CM’s), and new Technology Innovators. We have proven experience in rapidly developing new products along with helping you launch your products into production anywhere in the world with our exclusive Global Product Launch Model (GPLM). We have expanded our model to become the pre-eminent player in the Pre-Manufacturing Services (PMS) sector while keeping Design for Manufacturability (DFM) at the forefront of who we are. We invite you to contact us to explore how we can better serve you in your product development process.

Sep Topic: Protecting You IP Speaker: Mike Romanies & Open Disucssion There are several key points to protecting your intellectual property during the especially vulnerable times at start-up. This month Mike will share some thoughts on the topic and invite members to share their views and experiences.

Oct Topic: Austin Business Journal Speaker: Colin Pope Colin Pope has about a decade of experience as a news reporter and editor, and has also spent a significant amount of time working as a public relations expert. He is currently the managing editor of the Austin Business Journal. The majority of Mr. Pope’s news experience relates to newspapers, but he has spent a notable amount of time reporting on behalf of radio and television outlets. Mr. Pope’s news articles have garnered numerous awards for writing and reporting, and his stories have received international attention. His forte is covering business and government. In addition to his work in journalism, Mr. Pope has helped a number of Fortune 500 companies maximize their exposure in the media as a contractor for various public relations firms throughout Texas. Much of Mr. Pope’s PR consulting was spent media training corporate executives and refining a company’s key messages. As director of corporate communications for a successful Austin-based financial services company, NetSpend Corp., Mr. Pope managed all of the company's internal and external communications. During a stint with Austin-based government affairs firm Strategic Partnerships Inc. as its communications manager, Mr. Pope served as the editor of the Texas Government Insider, a weekly Internet publication available online and emailed to more than 10,500 subscribers. He also assists with information gathering as it relates to economic trends, procurement, governmental affairs, and customized research. Mr. Pope obtained a journalism degree from the University of Texas-Austin, where he majored in the News, Media and Public Affairs sequence. October 25, 2006, 7:00 - 8:00 pm

Nov Topic: Inaugural Austin Inventors Mentoring (AIM) Program Speaker: Panel of Experienced Experts AIEA is putting together a special program for selected memember. A panel of experts will listen to ideas and provide mentoring, coaching and feedback. Stay tuned for more details coming soon.