Tech Hub grand opening

(Cheering and chatter during the ribbon-cutting prep)

Woman: Like pretend that like you're cutting.

Woman: Okay, Allison?

Allison: I'm not going to...

Woman: I was getting your arm in there, I was like...

Woman: I'm not getting in the way.

Woman: We're looking at you.

Woman: Okay, those are some serious scissors, huh?

Woman: I'm going to do a countdown, and if you want to look at me and cut, I'll do 1, 2, 3, and then you can cut. Ready? 1, 2, 3...

(Ribbon is cut, audience claps and cheers)

Chamber Representative: I just wanted to say on behalf of the Chamber, I mean, you guys are embodying what we want to do, right? Entrepreneurs supporting other entrepreneurs, this is the epitome of a public-private partnership. It's an honor to be here, especially with my work in entrepreneurial small business development, I think our paths are going to cross again. I'm going to do everything I can to make it happen. We always say that we want to give business owners all the tools that they need to be successful, and I think you have all the tools that they need to be successful. So, well done, congratulations! We're glad to have you guys here.

Speaker: And remember, One Spartanburg!

(Laughter and agreement)

Speaker: Well, we want to thank you guys, and you're all welcome at any time to come in and talk to us. Our website is being updated constantly, and in the next couple of weeks, you'll see all of the programs—I think we've got two of the concept programs in, and I'm still working out a couple of logistics with some of our partners. All of those concept-nurtured programs are going to be teaching them a skillset or certification that they can actually monetize in their business practices.

As well as getting the sponsors to contribute more to become involved, as far as Google sending us that amazing camera so that we can do the road mapping—that is superb. But I just want to thank our other partners, RingCentral, who have worked tirelessly with us on trying to get their technology for video conferencing, and we use that for their business phone lines. Every member has the RingCentral app and actually has an extension on our main system so that people can call them, send text messages from it, all that great stuff.

I want to thank Axis Communications, they've been great. They gave us these cameras at a tremendous discount so that we can have this technology in place. I love Axis because they were the first in IP, and they make the best IP camera in the world.

Just to thank all the people locally: keep supporting local entrepreneurs. We have a lot of services—like Jeremiah's, if you got photography to be done for your business, he's an excellent photographer and his videography is almost perfect. Once he finishes his training—if you look at some of his videos, it's amazing, he does amazing wedding videos and things of that nature.

We have audio, if you're doing commercials. We have two audio companies: one is Thomas of Emulous Studios, he is exceptional, exceptional talents. Xuku—these guys, we set them up through a GoDaddy reseller, they're doing cloud and hosting services, as well as Exxon Group. So we have two of those on that program, so you can sign up for your domains, sign up for your hosting services. Instead of going straight to GoDaddy, go to your local business here in Spartanburg. We have two of them that provide those services—email service, their websites and links will be on our site.

The goal of it is, the more we market the center and these guys, the more we can get our Spartanburg businesses to invest in their local businesses. Spend local. This is how we build our local economy: spending local and empowering the businesses that are right around our door.

We are a friendly group. Like I said, if you've got a business idea or you're having a challenge, especially with technology, you come in to us. We provide cloud technology, we're trying to get businesses to convert their operations over to the cloud. Jack could be able to tell you with his POS system that went down three months ago because he didn't have a backup, and it took a month to bring it back to where it needed to be, and he lost sales.

So, anything that we can do for any entrepreneurs... and I want to tell you this for your parents: how I got the technology—that's why you see an Xbox over here—was through video games. If you got a young teen at the house who's playing Xbox and PlayStation, just send them to me. Don't discourage them, because I would have never got to where we're here, because most of this technology I actually tested when I wanted to do a gaming fraternity and a gaming thing online. The actual technology that I'm using right now to broadcast live to Facebook is a gaming application. It's like a $60 application used for video gamers to show their screen. I tweaked it to make it work for this environment.

So be encouraged, parents. If any of your kids or grandkids are playing video games, you send them to me, and we'll help them channel that talent into a technology skill that can serve them well. That's where the new jobs are going to be in the tech sector, and we can get our kids right out of high school, right into the tech sector with their certifications. I'm pushing project management certification and different skillsets so that they can be able to do larger commercial projects.

So, just thank you, and God has been great for us, and I want to give Him all the glory, because I'm just working through Him to try to do something small for our One Spartanburg.

(Outro graphic displaying "Thinking Outside The Box" logo)