Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. It's featured guest time on the show, and I'm very pleased to have with me serial entrepreneur, CFO extraordinaire, and husband to Cheryl Rapp, none other than Ernie Rapp. Ernie, welcome to the BusinessMakers Show.

Ernie: Thanks Russ. Glad to be here.

Russ: You bet. And the other part of your title is co-founder, along with Cheryl, of the Up Experience. And let's just say that somebody's not been paying attention for the last couple years and doesn't know what the Up Experience is, my goodness. Tell 'em what it is.

Ernie: Here's the elevator pitch. One day, fourteen speakers from around the world, incredible slate of intelligence, each presenting twenty minutes so that you get kind of a nutshell of their passion and their expertise on topics that don't typically come across your desk every day.

Russ: All right. I would underscore that definition 'cause I've been there.

Ernie: That's right. That's right.

Russ: And my goodness. The intellect is just impressive. The message. I mean, I walk away feeling like I've learned twice as much as I've learned in college when I go to those things [Laughter]. Jeez.

Ernie: You know, the byproduct of this, when we started it, we didn't realize it, but we've changed peoples' lives. They come out of this conference. We call it an experience because it's more than a conference. They come out of it with so many different ideas and things that they're gonna implement in their personal life, as well as their business. And those memorable twenty minutes last a long time.

Russ: Now, the way the format works too is you get to hear 'em share what they want to share, and then there's sort of a breakdown session where you can actually ask questions, correct?

Ernie: Key, key component. So one of the things we do is we make sure that we have opportunities for you to interact with the speakers. So after the twenty minutes, there are four right in a row, we take a break, we take the speakers in the break room, set up four different mini stages and put them in a Q&A environment so that you can get up close and personal.

Russ: Right. Cool. Share for our listeners some of your favorite guests that have been part of the Up Experience in the past.

Ernie: Wow! Two years ago Malcolm Gladwell, Blink, the Tipping Point, Ray Curtswild, Steve Wozniak. Last year David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the Hayden Planetarium. He's the guy that was responsible for taking Pluto off the planetary system.

Russ: Okay. Damn him.

Ernie: Yeah. It just keeps going on from there and there. Just intellect from fine dining to what's space exploration and everything in between.

Russ: And now, I remember talking with you, interviewing you a while back, and you sort of shared the idea trigger that you and Cheryl had, what stimulated this, and I believe, if I'm not wrong, you had attended a TED conference out on the West Coast, and that stimulated you to bring that to Houston, right?

Ernie: Came back from that event very inspired. Cheryl and I looked at each other and said, we have to bring this to Houston. We decided to pull it off and make it happen.

Russ: All right. Cool. All right. So here we are Up Experience 2010.

Ernie: Right. Third year.

Russ: What kind of lineup do we have on tap this year?

Ernie: You know, Michael Eisner from Disney, David Pogue, the New York Times technology writer. Okay. And then let's shift subjects altogether and go to a thirteen-year-old, Adora Vetech. Here's a little girl who's published three or four books, teaches at the college level, and just goes from, you know, an incredible array of talent at such a young age. She's gonna come in and speak about some amazing things.

And then there's Dan Buettner. He wrote a book called "The Blue Zones". Here's an amazing guy that has traveled the world finding areas of the world where people are living past the age of 100.

Russ: My goodness.

Ernie: He's gonna give us, you know, the why -

Russ: Wow!

Ernie: - if you will. Richard Florida, The Creative Class, also just wrote a book called "The Great Reset". And based on what's been happening in the economy and the stock markets right now, I think we all realize we're going through a reset.

Russ: Boy. No kidding.

Ernie: He's gonna come in and tell us kind of globally and US wise economically how we're gonna be affected here in Houston, Texas.

Russ: Cool.

Ernie: One more really quick to mention. There's this guy named Luis von Ahn, and you've probably used some of the technology that he developed. It's called CAPTCHA. So whenever you go to a registration site and there's those squiggly little letters.

Russ: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Ernie: So Louie developed that.

Russ: This is the guy.

Ernie: This is the guy [Laughter]. And so he's gonna come in and talk about some more interesting technologies and why he does what he does.

Russ: Oh, that's cool. Sounds great. So what's the date of the event?

Ernie: October 21st, Thursday, all day, 8:30 to 5:00. Four sessions, three or four speakers per session. Breaks. Great catered lunch. An incredible experience.

Russ: Okay. Now, that's a serious commitment. You got to give a day to go in there, but, as you kind of mentioned up front, this has changed quite a few peoples' lives [Laughter]. So it's definitely an event worth while. What is the cost to get in the door?

Ernie: It's $1,000.00 per person. We have some incredible sponsors that have allowed us to keep the price that same price over the last three years. HAB, Sugarland Mercedes, Humana Healthcare, and a host of others, Champion Energy Services. Just incredible folks to come along for the ride.

Russ: Great. Well, from what I know of events like the Up Experience, that's priced very well. So you must be doing well with these sponsors to. So -

Ernie: You know, they've been very helpful to us.

Russ: That's real cool. Okay. Remind our listeners, again, the date, and tell 'em about the website too in case they want to know that.

Ernie: October 21st, all day Thursday at the Stafford Performing Arts Center, very close to Houston. The website is www.thexperience.com. All one word.

Russ: Okay. Well, I'm looking forward to it. I'm definitely gonna be there again this year.

Ernie: Can't wait to see ya and your wife.

Russ: Oh, you bet. You bet. And I thank you for hosting this cool event too. That was really neat.

Ernie: Thank Cheryl. She does all the work.

Russ: All right. Great. I'll do that [Laughter]. It's Ernie Rapp along with his wife Cheryl Rapp who put on the Up Experience. October 21st, 2010 in Houston, Texas. This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com.