Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ended May 24, 2014 (Dr. Bob Odell, NevBio-Dr. Renee Coffman, Mark Goldfogel, NBAA, TBAN & K2 Energy, SXSW V2V, Asian Chamber, UNLV)

Met with Dr. Robert Odell and Dr. Richard Singer of the Neuropathy and Pain Centers of America.  Dr. Odell has a PhD and MD from Stanford University. He has developed a new way to treat neuropathy and chronic pain along with Richard Sorgnard, PhD. He uses a combination of a local anesthetic and an electro-magnetic device that delivers Medium Frequency (MF) current without the electrical charge. The device also delivers frequency-modulated and amplitude-modulated electrical cell current in the MF range. The new treatment appears to reach deeper into tissues structures. The treatment combines a local pain killer and the electrical currents to create a chemical and electrical pain blocks that have shown clinical success. One should read their article on the clinical success, especially, if you or someone you know has neuropathy or chronic pain. The article is "New Technique Combines Electrical Currents and Local Anesthetic for Pain Management" 'Combined electrochemical nerve block reduced pain in 80% of patients with neuropathies and 50% of patients with intractable back pain' by Dr. Robert Odell and Richard Sorgnard, PhD, in Pain Management, June 2011. It is great to see this technology and treatment available in Las Vegas.

Ran the Nevada Biotechnology & Health Science Consortium (NevBio) meeting featuring Dr. Renee Coffman, President of Roseman University. Dr. Coffman and Dr. Harry Rosenberg started Roseman over 15 years ago, which was the first stand-alone pharmacy school in more than 50 years. Besides just starting the school, they decided to build a school that worked better for all students. They had the belief that no student attends school to fail and that it is their job to help that student to succeed. They developed a method of teaching which has became known as the "Roseman Method". First, all classes are taught in blocks. A student takes one class at a time, 6 hours a day, for five days a week. Typically, the class runs for two weeks but can be several weeks depending on the difficulty of the subject. The second key element is the "Assessment-Feedback-Reassessment Process". Students received formal and informal assessments during the day to gauge their understanding. Assessments are given as individuals and as peer groups. The tests and results are discussed, challenged and learned. Every two weeks, a formal assessment is given. Students are required to achieve 90% on all tests to pass the class. Roseman does not have grades per se, just a 90% pass or fail. Students must achieve a deep understanding of the subject. Third, to help students understand the content, Roseman employs a number of teaching methods - lecture, hands-on, experimental, real-life and peer group sessions. Students are encouraged to ask questions and the classes are long enough to accommodate a vigorous Q & A. Fourth, students are encouraged to work together in groups and help each other learn. Roseman has high first-time passing rates for Board Licensure Examinations: DMD Programs 97.5%,  ParmD Program 97.9%,  BSN 100% and Orthodontic Residency 100%. Over 50 attended the meeting including Dr. Barbara Atkinson, the planning dean of the UNLV Medical School; Tim Porter, Dean of the UNLV College of Sciences; Dr. Joyson Pekkattill, Comprehensive Cancer Centers; Dr. Ron Fiscus, Roseman University; Dr. Martin Schiller, UNLV College of Sciences; Dr. David Cohen, Elutin; Dr. Constance Brooks, Nevada System of Higher Education; Dr. Liam Leavitt and many others.

Met with Mark Goldfogel, President of C4Ever Systems. Mark's company has developed a cash kiosk for the Medical Marijuana industry. Currently, banks are not allowed to work with medical marijuana businesses. C4Ever Systems has develop a way to take in the cash - through the kiosk and give credit to the dispensary with full complete tracking of the cash. He has also signed a local bank, First Security Bank, to handle the cash.

Attended the Nevada Business Aviation Association (NBAA) meeting. I missed the first talk from Ken (Chip) Thompson on the Nevada Test and Training Range which is used by Nellis for the Red Flag events in which the US and Allied Forces fly simulated combat situations.  According to Nellis Air Force base, typically, in a year, more than 1,200 aircraft fly 20,000 plus sorites while training more than 27,000 personnel.

Sunrise High School's Aviation Club was also being honored at the meeting for coming in first, out of 79 schools across the country in a airplane design, build & fly competition (the future UAV workforce). Reza Karamooz, President of the NBAA, also worked with the aviation club. About 40 attended the meeting which was held at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance (train individuals to repair and maintain airplanes).

Attended the Technology Business Alliance of Nevada (TBAN) which featured Randon Hansen of K2 Energy (a battery plant located in Henderson, NV).

The title of Randon's talk was, "Tesla's Giga Factory. Is Nevada the Next Battery Technology Hub". Randon made a compelling case that if the Tesla Giga Battery factory comes to Nevada (Reno has a better shot than Las Vegas), the whole state would benefit from it. The most obvious companies that would relocate to Nevada would be the suppliers to Tesla but also other companies that develop batteries for other purposes would move here. The $6 billion Tesla factor would hire over 6,000 employees. Tesla can reuse its car batteries. Once they have been used in their cars, they can be reused as backup for solar panel systems. Companies such as Solar City can use the batteries. Randon believes that Nevada had a very good chance of landing the factory. Randon also talked about his company, K2 Energy, which started out of a garage in Henderson and now has its own building. K2 Energy sells Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries which have an advantage over other lithium batters in safety, environmental friendly, long lasting and power. Their markets ranges from flashlights, medical devices, cordless drills, scooters, back-up power systems to electric cars.  Over 120 attended the meeting.

Attended the SXSW V2V meetup at the bar atop the Inspire Theatre. These meetings are a build-up to the V2V conference in Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, July 13th -16th. Talked with Nathan Rowe of Full Spectrum Laser. The company has received numerous awards as the top startup in Las Vegas for its 3D Printer which uses lasers. Also met Brea Silva from Stratus Werkz, an IT consulting firm. Later, talked to Michael Terpin of Social Radius and founder of Startup Grind (next meeting Tuesday, May 27, 2014).

Took the back stairs out which led to the Downtown Cocktail Room, the bar that helped start the movement toward downtown. On the way out, stopped at Michael Cornthwaite's new bar, The Scullery, at the Ogden, which was having their grand opening. Ran into attorney Dayvid Figler and Jonathan Warren, Honorary Consul of Monaco. Great jazz band in the back.

Attended the Asian Chamber of Commerce Meeting which featured Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller. Ross talked about the success his office has had in the 8 years since he was elected. One of his achievements was setting up the Silver Flume website, a one-stop portal to set up businesses in Nevada. His office has also created a free service to help customers set up LLCs. Customers can create operating agreements and conduct meetings on line through the service. Nevada is the only state in the country with that capability. He also talked about his office's work to keep the elections clean in Nevada, noting how his office prosecuted ACORN for voter registration violations. Over 200 attended the meeting.

Met with UNLV President, Don Snyder, UNLV Vice-President of Research, Tom Piechota and Dr. Francis Tsang, Co-founder of Global Medical Isotope Systems (GMIS). The purpose of the meeting was to introduce the UNLV president to one of the preeminent nuclear physicists in Las Vegas. GMIS has developed a system in which the company uses a neutron generator and depleted uranium to create medical isotopes. Most medical isotopes are in short supply in the world and must be made using aging nuclear reactors. This method would be a huge breakthrough in the development and supply of medical isotopes. GMIS is working with UNLV's radiation chemistry department and plans to renew their contract with UNLV.

Dr.Tsang made the point several times with stories, examples and personal experience that in order to have a robust research program at UNLV, the university must not micro-manage the researchers. Researchers need to have room to experiment and change courses, similar to a new business. Dr. Tsang is very supportive of UNLV's goal of a Tier 1 institution and agreed to work with the university in any way that he can.

The UNLV accelerator project was also discussed. Varian Medical Systems donated two linear accelerators to UNLV, an M-6 and a K-9, which are the basis for the new linear accelerator center. Dr. Tsang has worked with linear accelerators and the co-founder of GMIS, Zane Wilson, worked on linear accelerators at Varian. Dr.Tsang said that he would bring to UNLV some of the top researchers with linear accelerators to advise UNLV.

We also talked about the upcoming NevBio luncheon at UNLV's Stan Fulton Building on June 10th at which the former director of Procter and Gamble's Researcher & Development department will talk on "Radical Innovation". Don Snyder wants to make sure that this luncheon was on his calendar and agreed to help encourage key people to attend. Dr. Tom Piechota, Vice-President of Research, is leading UNLV's involvement with the luncheon. He said that if fits perfectly with our direction of a Tier 1 research based institution.

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending May 17, 2014 (So Nev Econ Priorities, Deli Thursday)

Attended the Arizona State University 2014 graduation of my son, Scott Charles Laub, who graduated with a double major, Accounting & Finance, summa cum laude. Scott is the one on the left, his brother Mike is on the right. He had several job offers and chose to work with a Phoenix valuation firm. He'll start his new job on June 1, 2014. His mother, Karen and his brother, Mike, also attended the graduation. We are very proud of his accomplishments.

Attended the Southern Nevada Economic Priorities meeting. This group is focused on legislative issues that support the economy of Southern Nevada. Assemblywoman Irene Bustamante-Adams is the primary facilitator. The three top priorities as voted on are the UNLV Med School, infrastructure and UAVs.
UNLV Provost John White was the first speaker.
John talked about the UNLV Med School and how it will help with the need for more doctors in Nevada. He is also on the Governor's Graduate Medical Education (GM) Task Force, a group that is working on a plan which requires some state funding for doctor residencies. He believes that GME and the UNLV Med School will help with doctor shortage in Nevada. UNLV President Don Snyder also spoke about the importance of the UNLV Medical School to the economy, UNLV and the health of Nevadans. Vance Farrow, Healthcare Specialist with the Governor's Office of Economic Development, spoke about the national and state problems of not enough residencies for doctors which will be exacerbated as med school enrollments are increasing across the country. In attendance were NSHE Regent, Kevin Page; Dean of the Roseman Medical School, Dr. Mark Penn, Luis Valera of UNLV, Barbra Coffee, City of Henderson; Debbie Gallo, Southwest Gas; Steven Curtis, DRI; Scott Muelrath, Henderson Chamber; Michael Vannozzi, LVGEA and many others.

Attended Robert Ellis's Thursday deli lunch. Bob sponsors a lunch every two weeks at which politicians, candidates, lobbyists and friends attend and talk. This week's luncheon had Governor Brian Sandoval, former Governor, Richard Bryan; State Senate Minority Leader, Michael Robinson; State Senator, Joyce Woodhouse; State Senator, Mike Manendo; Assemblyman, Lynn Stewart; Valley Bank president, James York, former mayor, James Gibson and many others.

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending May 10, 2014 (Laxalt, Leven, Adelson, Harter, Snyder, Med Mixer, College of Science -Dr. Hui Zhang & Tom Thomas)

Adam Laxalt spoke at the Republican Mens Club. Adam is the grandson of Paul Laxalt, former governor, senator and presidential candidate. Adam has an impressive military background as a JAG officer and has served in Iraq. As a JAG officer he was the in-house counsel for a military base which is analogous to a small city - with all of the same problems. Adam is running for Attorney General. He spoke how the attorney general is the top law enforcement person in the state. Their job is to enforce the law, not decide which laws to enforce. He believes that the office cannot slip into picking and choosing which laws to enforce. Everyone must be treated fairly. It's the job of the legislature to correct the laws if they are not serving the needs of Nevada. Over 200 attended the luncheon including a number of candidates, including Joe Lombardo and Robert Gronaur (Bobby G), both running for sheriff.

Michael Leven, CEO of the Las Vegas Sands spoke to a free pubic lecture at the UNLV Artemas Ham Hall at 1 pm to a large crowd of mostly students and some business people. Michael was interviewed by Arte Nathan, the former Human Resource Director of the Bellagio and Wynn Hotels. Mike said that his job as the CEO is to simplify, to bring clarity to complex situations in order to move forward. His job is also to create and meld his leaders into a team. Everyone has a role and must execute it well so that the whole teams succeeds much like a a football team. His advice to the students was to do the right thing all of the time and to work hard. In his first job he leaned that process, a clear system and the discipline to the follow that process was important. He first sales job was for a hotel which required him to arrive in the morning, make sales calls, meet a prospect at lunch, make more calls and visits and write a summary each day. Afterwards, his supervisor would read his summary and talk to him about that day's progress. The system helped him to develop the discipline to be successful. He talked about the time when he was the President of the Days Inn, a job that he really liked. When the new owners came in, they began to act unethically. After telling them several times to clean up their act, he finally had to resign. He said it was tough. The owners ended up in prison but it was the right thing to do. When his subordinates meet with him, he expects them to be ready, to have thought out all of the issues. He expects employees to be upfront and to get to the point quickly. He appreciates people that disagree with him. He uses the Socratic method of asking questions to find out the information he needs to know.

Sheldon Adleson, Chairman of the Las Vegas Sands, also spoke to the same audience at UNLV after a short break at the conclusion of Michael Leven's talk. Don Snyder, President of UNLV and Stowe Shoemaker, Dean of the Hotel College both welcomed Sheldon Adelson. Again, through an interview process, Sheldon talked about growing up poor in Boston, His father moved to the United States from Lithuania and drove a cab for a living. Sheldon first job was selling papers on a corner. At that time you had buy your corner or pay the owner a percentage of the sales. Sheldon decided to buy the corner. He had to borrow $200 from his uncle. His uncle required him to make monthly payments of principal and interest. That helped him develop credit and discipline. When he later bought a candy vending business, he had to borrow $10,000 which his uncle loaned him. Sheldon started over 50 businesses in his career such as a court reporting business, a charter business, a convention business (Comdex) and the hotel business. He believes that if you are going to start a new business, it must be different; it must change or challenge the thinking of the status quo. He believes that risk and rewards go hand in hand. To make the reward, you must take the risk. He said that you have to be determined and be ready to retry your ideas and refine them but not to give up. He saw the need in Las Vegas for a convention center as part of a hotel as part of an integrated resort when he was hosting his Comdex convention at eight different locations. He also believed that rooms, food, beverage and retail could create revenue for the hotel which was the basis for developing the Venetian which had shopping (Grand Canal Shops), a convention center and Chef-based restaurants. Everyone thought that he was going to go bust but he didn't and now every hotel in Las Vegas has convention facilities and shopping. He developed the Cotai Strip in Macau which was mostly swamp or land underwater. Everybody told him that it was foolish. He built up the land which now holds the Venetian Macau and other casinos. It's been one of his biggest successes. He also stressed the notion of critical mass which is that things have to be a certain size to attract people. If things are big enough, people will come. He talked about the Marina Bay Sands Hotel which has achieved tremendous success and has garnered numerous awards. The Marina Bay Sands had, besides the highest and largest rooftop pool in the world, over 1 million square feet of shopping, a risk that has paid off. Sheldon is now looking to build his integrated resorts as iconic buildings - buildings that are so crazy that the architectural  firm has thrown them away. He wants those crazy and unusual designs. He constantly returned to identifying to challenge the status quo and finding ways to do things new and different.

Later that afternoon, UNLV held a reception for former UNLV President Carol Harter. Carol was the first UNLV president to begin research programs at UNLV which at the time was controversial (might still be). The bottom line is that research brings money into the university, helps subsidize the school and engages the students in work that they will be doing in the real world. Research is a win-win for the university - for the money and teaching opportunities and it's a boon for economic development for a community. Congresswomen Dina Titus spoke on behalf of Carol as did many others. Over 100 attended the event, including a number of the regents.

Don Snyder, President of UNLV spoke to Joe Brown's 1st Wednesday Luncheon at the Las Vegas Country Club. Prior to Don speaking, Father Max Oliva, a Jesuit Priest, as is the custom of this group, talked on the value of ethics. Don believes that every great community has a great university and for Las Vegas to become a great community, we need to develop UNLV into a great university. That path to greatness is becoming a Tier 1 university. Don talked about his four detailed action strategies that he had for the university. Number 1) is to develop a Medical School at the university. He announced that Medical School Dean had been hired. Her name is Barbara Atkinson and she is from the University of Kansas. Number 2) is to develop the research at the university. It needs to increase to $100 million and ultimately to $400 million to be a Tier 1 university. Number 3) is to focus on students and improving their success and helping them graduate on time. Number 4) is to create more of a residential campus for students, to increase the number of students living on campus. He sees the stadium as a critical part of creating an improved campus environment. It is all part of the campus master plan. He wants to add another 500,000 square feet of research (currently UNLV has 650,000 square feet and is bursting at the seams). He sees a great partnership with UNLV and Switch. Switch has been working on developing more fiber optic core. Switch has a strong relationship with Intel. Intel is talking about developing a Cherry Creek Super Computer at UNLV which would be 10 times faster than the current Cray Super Computer that's on campus. Don sees a great future for the UNLV and Las Vegas. At the end of the meeting, Dr. Jack Brown, an expert in body language, gave 5 minute talk and presentation on body language. He said that what you are thinking and feeling will be projected onto your facial gestures and body language. Over 100 attended the lunch.

Attended the Las Vegas HEALS monthly medical mixer at the Palazzo's Dal Toro Restaurant and Exotic Car Showroom. The mixer was sponsor by Roseman University of Health Sciences and Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Doug Geinzer, President of Las Vegas HEALS made a few quick announcements; otherwise, the rest of the evening was available for mingling. Over hundred attended the event including a number of doctors, medical personnel, assistant sheriff, Joe Lombardo; Barbra Coffee, Economic Development Director of Henderson, Kevin Gullette, Clark County Economic Development and many others.

Attended the UNLV College of Sciences Advisory Board meeting.  Russel Frank attended who had just returned from Israel. He had spent time at a number of he universities including Technion. Google, Intel, Facebook and numerous companies have research centers at these campus. Israel recycles over 80% of their water which is better than other country, the next best is 19%. Russ plans to work with the UNLV College of Sciences to duplicate some of successes at the universities in Israel. As Chairman of the Board, I opened the meeting. Dean Tim Porter talk about how the school is starting a math day for high school students in October in which the students will meet professors, listen to presentations and engage in activities. The college is also supporting with its funds a project started by Dr. Martin Schiller to create a database of markers for diseases based on genetics. Tim also talked about meeting the new Medical School Dean, Barbara Atkinson, and how he was impressed with her vision and energy. The college is also actively working on Quantitative Health Sciences to create data around clinical trials. The project dovetails nicely with the medical school and is

funded by the State of Nevada's Knowledge Fund. Tim then introduced Dr. Hui Zhang who is now part of the college of sciences. He was previously at Harvard University and moved to Las Vegas to continue his research at the Nevada Cancer Institute. Hui talked about cancer stem cells. Cancer can be killed with chemotherapy and radiation but if some of the cancer stem cells survive, the cancer will return. Hui has developed an anti-cancer stem cell treatment by targeting LSD1 and Sox2 regulatory pathways. He has several patents around this process, some of the patents are shared with Nevada Cancer Institute and UNLV. This treatment could help with many cancers including lung cancer which had taken the life of Hui's father.

The Las Vegas Downtown Project has a free weekly meditation class for business people that's on the beginning level. It meets each Thursday evening at 6 pm in Trailer 1 at the Learning Village. The group is led by Angi Covington of the Art of Attunement.  She works with corporations and other groups to improve one's thinking. Over twenty people attended. Meditation is one of the best ways to clear the mind and to relieve stress.

The BYU Management Society Lunched featured Tom Thomas who is part of the Thomas & Mack Development Company. Tom has a law degree from University of Utah. Tom's father was called Mr. Las Vegas for his prominent role as the Chairman of Valley Bank when he was the first banker to finance casinos, including a young Steve Wynn. Tom gave an impressive talk on the

importance of entrepreneurship in creating jobs and sustaining a competitive economy in the world. Tom talked about the 4 things that entrepreneurs do that make a difference. He used Switch and Rob Roy, founder and President of Switch, as an example. Tom is on the board of Switch and is one of the early investors in Switch. Number 1) is to challenge the norms. Rob decided that data centers could be built better. Most data centers were cooled from a raised floor. Rob believed that there are inherent problems from cooling from the floor and began developing his center with a different cooling systems. Most of Switch 200 patents are on cooling - the biggest problem with data centers. One of the other innovations was to build a large open shell of a building for the data center so that portions of the center could be built when demand increased but all of the costly delays from building approvals, licensing, design could all be done up front - this method made Switch better at expanding quickly and gaining market share. 2) Take Risks. Rob Roy first risk was to set up a the data center. He also showed up in bankruptcy court in New York to bid on the assets of Enron's data center (he was the only one). Once he opened the data center, he constantly expanded, so much that his investors began to worry. However, Rob knew that Moore's law dictated that computing speed would double every 18 months and that it would require more storage. 3) Bring the innovation to the market. Rob Roy and Switch had a novel way to reach the market. Switch never advertised but what it did do was work with engineers in the industry. Pretty soon the engineers would talk about Switch and their innovations and through word of mouth, Switch has constantly had more business than it could handle. 4) Never hear the word no - it's just not yet. Rob Roy never saw an obstacle. It was always matter if not now, then it will be later. He never gave up (sounds like Sheldon Adelson's description of entrepreneurs - never to give up). Tom's broad point is its entrepreneurs that have helped the United States lead the world's economy and as a country, we need to do everything to encourage entrepreneurs and reduce the amount of regulations and obstacles. Over 50 attended the luncheon, including Dan Hamilton, Dean of the UNLV Law School, and Jim Crockett, candidate for judge.

Attended the National Atomic Testing Museum Board of Trustees meeting. The museum attendance and exhibits have been growing. The museum is a stop for several tour busses. The museum director has a weekly show on Saturday, KXNT, 840, in which he talks to guests about Area 51, UFOs and the Atomic Testing Museum. The museum is looking for ways to involve students and student field trips into the museum. The members believe its a great way for students to get excited about STEM education. This Saturday (May 17th) the museum will have half priced admission, speakers, radio interviews for the celebration of the re-opening of the Area 51 exhibit.

Interviewed on the Las Vegas International Press Club radio program on 1230 AM (KLAV) by Frank Spady, President of the Press Club and Leonard Wright, CPA of the Financial Fridays radio program, on the various events that take place in Las Vegas that are mentioned on the NevBio calendar. Frank Spady, is also president of the Canada Nevada Business Council. He envisions the press club as an opportunity to create a national press club in Las Vegas in which prominent business luminaries and politicians will hold press conferences and briefings. The radio program is the part of the process to making that vision happen. The program is every Friday at 4 pm to 5 pm on KLAV 1230 AM.

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas Week Ending May 3, 2014 (Page, Startup Grind, Ballard Spahr, NevBio, Tick, AMA, Richard Harris Law Firm)

Met with Kevin Page, Chairman of the Board of Regents and Wells Fargo Wealth Management to discuss NevBio's "Play for Pre-Med" golf tournament on October 15, 2014, a portion of the proceeds will go toward UNLV College of Sciences Pre-Professional Program for Pre-Med, Pre-Dent, Pre-Vet and Pre-Pharmacy. The program has an 80% acceptance rate for medical school admissions. Kevin supported the idea of helping pre-med students and golf.

Attended the Startup Grind featuring Felix Dancui, CEO of Elmcore Capital. Felix is a straight up, no nonsense angel investor. He likes to invest in retail products. As an investor, he will be an active part of the company and seeks to either have control or significant influence. Felix has a laser sharp mind that he uses to identify opportunities and problems. Over 40 attended the meeting. Michael Terpin of Social Radius and angel investor (President of Bitcoin Angels) opened the meeting at the UNLV startup Center. Startup Grind is the best entrepreneurial group in Las Vegas because of its speakers, how the speakers are interviewed and those who attend.

Attended the Ballard Spahr law firm luncheon featuring Jon Ralston (Ralston Report), Steve Sebelius (RJ Columnist) and Patrica Cunningham (KCEP Morning Show). Bill Curran, Managing Partner, opened up the meeting at which 50 clients and friends attended. The first discussion topic was medical marijuana. Each one talked about how the voters approved medical marijuana in 2000 but it has taken 14 years to allow it to happen. They believed that it is good for the state and should raise additional taxes. Next was the rancher in Bunkerville, Cliven Bundy. They were very critical of Cliven Bundy and how some politicians have supported his actions. The last issue was the county hospital, UMC. They all support the hospital and its mission. They felt that the low grades it received was most likely a result of the greater number of sick patients.

Attended the NevBio meeting featuring the Bill Arent, Economic Director of the City of Las Vegas, talking about the Strong Cities, Strong Communities Challenge Grant in which the top team will win $500,000. Bill talked about the ideas coming in as business plan proposals. They want to see detailed business plans and supporting teams. The city is looking at it as an investment in the community and will help to find additional money to help the winning idea. The plan is opened to any group but each group can only submit one proposal. Over 30 attended the meeting. Quite a few of the attendees had ideas and were developing proposals. One of the questions was the ownership of the intellectual property. Craig Miller of Pictographics mentioned that coming to the NevBio meetings has helped his business with contacts he never would have had. He said that NevBio has been invaluable. (Of course, I agree with Craig.)

Met with State Senator Tick Segerblom and talked about the Medical Marijuana industry in Nevada and how the industry needs to be organized so that it can deal with issues and work with community concerns.  

Attended the American Marketing Association luncheon featuring Rob Elliot, SVP of Public Affairs at the Las Vegas Convention & Visitor Authority (LVCVA). Rob has had a history in public service having worked with the attorney general, the legislature and most recently, with Senator Harry Reid. Rob mentioned that this was the 10 year anniversary of "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas". Although the LVCVA has been successful with promoting Las Vegas and hosting some of the largest conventions in the world, a number of cities are upgrading their convention facilities - Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta, Anaheim, San Diego, San Francisco. The LVCVA has a ten year, $2.5 billion plan to upgrade the convention facility and develop a Global Business District. The LVCVA plans to build a World Trade Center at the convention center. They believe that international companies will want to be close to the top convention destination in the world. The LVCVA will be asking the state of Nevada for an investment in the project. Over 100 attended the meeting at the Thomas & Mack Board Room.

Attended the 5th Annual Richard Harris Law Firm Party. The firm invites clients and friends to the event which is held outside - food, music and drinks. Several hundred attended, including judges, attorneys, legislative candidates and business people.

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending April 26, 2014 (NRA, NLV, Ruvo, Vegas Inc, Asian Chamber, AFP)

Attended the Downtown Grand Tour and Mixer at the Art Bar hosted by the Nevada Restaurant Association. Seth Schorr, CEO of Downtown Grand Hotel, gave the group a tour of the property which started on the 18th floor. We visited two beautiful, modern rooms. The hotel is positioning itself as a boutique hotel with 600 rooms. On the 3rd floor was the outdoor pool, patio and beer garden. (Non-guests are welcomed at the beer garden.) The Downtown Grand owns 3rd street and will close it down for special festivals. The Art Bar was hip with paintings on the ceiling and overlooked 3rd Street. About 60 attended the mixer.

Attended the public hearing on Medical Marijuana at the North Las Vegas Council Chambers. The hearing was to begin gathering information for dispensaries in North Las Vegas. The mayor and council members attended. State Senator Tick Segerblom and Chad Westom, State of Nevada Medical Marijuana Department spoke. Nevada is unique in that it requires testing and labeling of the medical marijuana. About 100 people attended the hearing.

Attended the lunch & learn on clinical trials at the Ruvo Center. The Cleveland Clinic has lunch & learns each Wednesday at 12 pm. Sam Hickson, Research Associate for Cleveland Clinic, talked about six current trials, all involving alzheimer's patients (although at times they have trials for other diseases).  Five of the trials were testing oral medical or infusions and one was a medical device that used magnetic energy to help the brain (apparently magnetic energy is being used to relieve migraines). The lengths of the trials can be months to several years. All of these trials help test and hopefully advance promising drugs and treatments for alzheimer's. As part of the presentation one of the caregivers (his wife has alzheimer's) talked about how important it is to be involved in medical trials and their personal story. Both were professionals in the Bay Area. She was the CEO of a large non-profit. Once they retired to Las Vegas they continued coaching executives until she began developing signs of memory impairment which led to a alzheimer's. They feel fortunate to have retired in Las Vegas which has the Cleveland Clinic Ruvo Brain Center. About 35 attended the talk, including Kelsey Zanoli of Roseman University.

Attended the Healthcare Headliners sponsored by Vegas INC at Ruvo Center. Numerous health care professionals were recognized including Renee Coffman of Roseman, Mitch Forman of Touro, and many others. The stories are moving as those in healthcare work to help people in a compassionate manner. Over 200 atteneded the event.

Attended the Asian Chamber of Commerce with Congressman Joe Heck. Joe talked the difficulties of moving legislation through the divided houses. He talked about healthcare, veterans, transportation, unmanned aerial vehicles and jobs. Over 250 attended the event, including Assistant Sheriff Joe Lombardo and numerous candidates for judicial office. 

Attended the Association of Fundraising Professionals luncheon which featured Anna Pikovsky Auerbach. She began her career at McKinsey & Co., advising CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. She has an MBA with honors at Harvard Business School.  Her talk was on strategic planning for non-profits (although the talk would have been appropriate for any organization). The key point is alignment - purpose and focus - for the board, mission and service area. Anna provide great handouts and examples. About 50 attended.

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending April 19, 2014 (TBAN, RJ, Stitch, Metro Chamber, UNLV Geoscience)

Attended the Technology Business Alliance of Nevada (TBAN) luncheon at which Jane Poynter, CEO of World View and President & Chairman of Paragon Space Development Corporation, spoke. Jane was one of the members of the Biosphere 2 project in which a group of eight individuals lived in a enclosed environment for 2 years. The experience led to the creation of Paragon Space Development Corporation to deal with living in extreme environments. A spinoff of that company was World View which uses a high-tech balloon to take people, experiments and payloads up 100,000 feet into the upper atmosphere. Their initial focus is bringing passengers up to space at $75,000 per person which will be less than Virgin Galactic at $250K and SpaceX at $95K. They can also quickly take up telecommunication systems. In addition they are planning to haul up satellites to be launched inexpensively from 100,000 feet. They have an office in Las Vegas and their operations are in Tuscon, Arizona. Tony Hsieh is one of their investors. The meeting was attended by over 60, including several judicial candidates, Jim Crockett and William Horne, two commissioners from Nye County, Jim Marsh, and Steve Curtis. Mike Maier ran the meeting. 

Attended the RJ Hashtags & Headlines luncheon featuring Senator Harry Reid. Steve Schorr, Review-Journal, opened the meeting. Steve Sebelius, RJ Columnist interviewed the senator. The senator told the audience that he was going unscripted in his remarks. He was very proud of a number of accomplishments that the Senate under his leadership accomplished. He said in 2008 after the President Obama was elected that they accomplished more legislation and changes since President Franklin Roosevelt. More pertinent to Las Vegas, he talked about how he help the airport with their financing for Terminal 3 during a difficult period for Las Vegas. He also said that he made numerous phone calls to the White House to help Nevada's efforts to secure the UAV testing site designation. He worked closely with Governor Brian Sandoval on that project and others that help Nevada such as the Tesla Battery Plant. He talked about the highway trust fund running out of money which will make it more difficult for the Interstate 11 freeway to Phoenix. He mentioned that they are looking at ways to allow the repatriation of corporate money from overseas to help the economy and that the new patent bill should be heard next week. He also talked about how they are closely monitoring events in Bunkerville. He has talked to Sheriff Gillespie, the FBI, the BLM, the Cattleman's Association and others about the situation. Over 250 attended the luncheon including Dean of the UNLV Law School Dan Hamilton, Tim Cashman, Ray Specht (Toyota Bank), Dr. Lonnie Hammargren, Tony Sanchez (NV Energy), Doug Puppel and others. 

Attendedthe monthly (3rd Thursday) Stitch Factory Speaker Series at the Learning Village downtown. The series brings in speakers from around the country. Afterwards, everyone meets at the Gold Spike. This month's speakers were Josh Clark of Global Moxie, a designer who is working on user interface of devices. David VanEsselstyn of Amplify Education & the Brooklyn Robot Foundry. He talked about coming up with the idea of the Brooklyn Robert Foundry and starting the business. Scott Jenson talked about his work with Google which involves devices communicating to cell phones. The last speaker was Liza Kindred of Third Wave Fashion on "The Future of Commerce". Her firm has developed a list of 25 marketing channels. One example of a new channel is a company that she called "Netflix for Nail Polish". The company sends nail polish to people for a month, they send it back and send it out to the next customer, very successful. Another successful company ($30 million) has people voting on the designs for their shirts - Threadless. Another company does ebay for people's closets, a kind of garage sale online. Its sales are over $200 million. Over 50 attended including Adam Zalesny (Hansen Networks) and Daniel Braisted of the Inventors Meetup.  

Attended the Chamber of Commerce Eggs & Issues breakfast with Congresswoman Dina Titus. She talked about issues in District 1 such as improving the corridor between Downtown and UNLV, Maryland Parkway, which goes from the University, pass the Boulevard Mall, pass Sunrise Hospital to Downtown Las Vegas. Another issue is bus stops. They are talking to companies such as Lowes, Home Depot and others, to donate land so that they can move bus stops back by 5 feet to prevent accidents. She is also working to support more tourism by reducing the visa restrictions to countries such as Brazil and China. Currently, they can only come once a year. She's pushing funding for Brand USA which encourages more foreign visitors. She worked hard on the UAV project and also on Google's driverless cars. She is focused on the improving the Veterans' Hospital. She also sits on the Transportation Committee and is pushing for the I-11 project. 

Over 300 attended the breakfast including numerous legislators and business people. 

I attended the UNLV Geoscience Symposium, a full day of presentations, key note speakers, posters and networking. I was able to catch a few of the student presentations on areas such as ancient buffalo fossils in North America to Asbestos sampling around Boulder City and Henderson. Barrick Gold was one of the sponsors. UNLV has a top notch Geoscience department which works with mining and oil & gas companies. 

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending April 12, 2014 (in DC)

I was in Washington DC with the Biotechnology Industry last week with Dr. Tim Porter, Dean of the UNLV College of Sciences. We had numerous meetings with the Nevada Congressional Delegation. 

We had two meetings with Senator Reid's staff, Robert Herbert, Chief of Staff and Kate Leone, Healthcare. We talked about how Reid's office can help with NIH RO1 grants. UNLV has researchers that have moved from other colleges and the grants are not renewed, same researcher, same science but different university. The office was not aware of the problem but will help. We also talked about their efforts to bring the Tesla Battery plant to Nevada, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones), Interstate 11 and the Test Site. The office is working closely with members of GOED on these projects. 

We also met with Ryan McBride, the healthcare specialist in Senator Heller's office. (The Senator was at a vote.) We talked about the importance of FDA and NIH funding to the biomedical industry. Ryan is also the expert on labor issues and had been busy with the extension of unemployment benefits which Senator Heller supported. He is the son of Dr Dan McBride and Linzel McBride.  (Linzel and I worked at Deloitte & Touche together.)

We met Congresswoman, Dina Titus and her healthcare specialist, Katherine Cassling.  We had met Katherine the previous year and updated her on the changes and issues. They are very supportive of UNLV. We also talked about UNLV's research on naturally occurring Asbestos that has been found around Boulder City and parts of Henderson. The office was very interested to know more about this issue.

We met with the Anna Leieritz, legislative counsel with Congressman Mark Amodei's office. We talked about the UNLV and UNR Med Schools. We also talked about UNLV's Geoscience department working with Noble Energy. Noble is drilling for oil and natural gas in Northeastern Nevada.

We met Congressman Joe Heck as he went off to a vote and talked with his healthcare specialist, Catie Fulton Spivey, about graduate medical education (residencies) and the issues around retaining doctors in Nevada. These are two big issues that his office is focused on.

We had reached out to Congressman Steven Horsford's office but our calls and emails were not returned.

I ran into Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown who was in Washington DC with the Regional Transportation Commission working on Interstate 11.

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending April 5, 2014

Attended the Touro University Research Day at which Dr. Chowdhury Ahsan, a Clinical Professor of Medicine with the University of Nevada School of Medicine and the Director of Cardiovascular Research at University Medical Center, was the featured speaker. Dr. Mitch Foreman, Founding Dean of Touro University Nevada, opened the lecture, saying that Touro is going to continue to push research at the University.  Dr. Mahboob Qureshi, Director of Research introduced Dr. Ahsan.  The title of his talk was "Global Perspective of Acute Coronary Syndrome and the Significance of Pharmacogenetics in Therapeutic Intervention". He primarily talked about how different ethnic populations react to differently to drugs which will greatly affect their medical outcomes especially when receiving angioplasty and stents. These patients are given anticoagulants and antiplatelets which work differently in south asians than caucasians. The rest of the day was student presentations. The students and faculty had over  

30 poster presentations of their research. This type of research is the basis for new treatment methods, devices and drugs and helps build the medical science community in Southern Nevada.

Attended the Startup Grind meeting, featuring Leith Martin, CEO of Equiinet. Anthony Hurtado of Raster Media opened the meeting. Michael Terpin, Founder of the Las Vegas Chapter of Startup Grind (over 60 chapters around the world) began the meeting with an interview of Leith. Equiinet provides phone, internet, security, backup, storage and other services in one box. The customer pays for the monthly service. One of their advantages is that the design of their system is that voice has priority over everything else which allows the phone quality to be clear. The price of their system is competitive and they are seeing tremendous success in Nevada, California and Phoenix. Leith said that their success is due to their business model. Although all these services are already available, packaging them together in a simple box that's installed at the customers office with a reasonable monthly price has broken open the market. Dominic Marrocco is also one of the co-founders. Leith and Dominic met at the Harvard Business School. Over sixty people attended the talk including Daniel Braisted, Steve Miller, Mark Cenicola and others. 

Attended the workshop on licensing medical marijuana in the city of Las Vegas. The event was moved to the city hall chambers due to the anticipated crowd. The council chambers filled up to the point that it was standing room only (300 attendees). The city licencing department was having this hearing to receive feedback on their proposed regulations. The meeting was very well handled by the city. The audience had a number of suggestions to improve the 35 pages of regulations. The audience was half entrepreneurs, a quarter patients and the rest, lawyers and contractors. The city will continue to take feedback as it finishes the licensing regulations by the end of the month.

Attended the Henderson Chamber of Commerce panel on education. On the panel were Shelley Berkley, Touro; Renee Coffman, Roseman; Bart Patterson, Nevada State College and Rick Smith, RDS Properties, moderator. Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen started the meeting noting that Henderson is home to 10 universities and colleges. 

Bart Patterson, President of Nevada State College talked about how his school is serving many who are the first in their family to attend college, including a large minority population. Their class sizes are smaller at a limit of 21. The college works closely with its students; the nursing students have a 100% pass rate this last year on their boards. Nevada State College sits on 500 acres and is planning to expand. They are looking for public-private partnerships with businesses.  

Renee Coffman, President & Co-founder of Roseman, talked about the Roseman teaching method. Each student takes one class at a time, six hour per day and is required to achieve 90% on all exams and tests. Roseman expects and demand proficiency of the material. Its pharmacy students consistently achieve 100% pass rates on their board exams. Roseman has expanded into Orthodontics. They have also set up a clinic at which they have state-of-the art equipment and students seeing over 70 appointments per day. Their pass rates have been at 100%. Roseman has added research space for Pharmacy and Dentistry over 40,000 square feet. They have obtained the Englestad building at the Nevada Cancer Institute and are supporting a team of researchers that are working on cancer, diabetes, prostrate, obesity and other areas.  Roseman plans to open its Medical School in 2017 and has already hired its Dean, Mark Penn, MD. They are also going to add new clinics to treat patients.

Shelley Berkley, CEO & Senior Provost of Touro University Western Division, talked about how Touro is meeting the needs of the community such as graduating nearly twice as many doctors (135) than the University of Nevada School of Medicine (70), developing a physician assistant (PA) program - over 1100 apply for 60 slots, developing physical therapists and occupational therapists, over 600 apply for 40 slots, developing an autism clinic which already has a nine-month waiting list, developing an active aging clinic for geriatric issues and plans to develop a Mental Health Clinic. Touro has saved the cities and countries money by having Touro medical students provide medical services to Shade Tree shelter and also to homeless veterans and is expanding the program to the general homeless. She said that Touro and Roseman are working together to strengthen the medical education in Southern Nevada. One of the main issues is Residencies for doctors. Without an expanded Residency program which must be funded by the state, Nevada will lose from 25% to 50% of the doctors that it trains. Nevada is 48th in doctors per capita in the United States.  

Councilwoman Gerri Schroder, David Dahan, James York, Luis Valera and over 150 people were in attendance at the event. 

Attended the Las Vegas Heals Medical Mixer at McFaddens. Over 100 were at the mixer. The mixer had doctors and individuals from different medical related industries. It's one of the friendliest mixers that I attend. People are eager to talk about their companies and issues. It's a great cross section of the medical community. Dr. Bob Odell's Neuropathy & Pain Centers had a booth on their innovative method to treat neuropathy, fibromyalgia and chronic pain using electrical currents. 

Finally, on Friday, I attended the Dominic Marrocco Southern Nevada Business Plan Competition. Debbie Donaldson, Las Vegas Business Press, opened the meeting. Dominic Marrocco, a primary sponsor of the competition, spoke about how impressive the business plans were. He also gave words of encouragement to the large group students that attended. The winner was Skyworks which developed UAVs for use in buildings such as flying in burning buildings to search for people. Runner ups had projects such as helping Chinese students, stem cells and brain exercises. Over 80 attended the events - many entrepreneurs, angel investors - Fred Cox, Ross Williams, Eugene Wong, Bill Botts, the law firm of Howard & Howard, Business Dean, Brent Hathaway, PhD, Oliver Hemmers, PhD, Ismail Onat, Michael Maier and many others.

John Laub