Russ: This is The BusinessMakers show, heard on the radio and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com. It's guest time on the show, and I'm very pleased to have with me Sheryl Rapp, co-founder of The UP Experience. Sheryl, welcome to The BusinessMakers Show.

Sheryl: Thank you for having me.

Russ: You bet. Well, let's just kind of imagine for a second that there's been somebody who doesn't know what The UP Experience is. Why don't you share your explanation of that?

Sheryl: The UP Experience stands for unique perspectives from unique people, so what that is is one day a year, my husband and I created an event where we bring in 14 to 16 thought leaders from all over the world that will talk about 14 different topics that will all be affecting our future. And they come in and they speak for 20 very powerful and passionate minutes, all in one day, so it's an incredible, intellectual experience that will get you up to speed very quickly on what the future holds.

Russ: Okay. Well, for full disclosure, I've actually only been to two so far, and this year is the -

Sheryl: Fourth year.

Russ: - fourth year. Okay, but man, oh man, the two that I went to, Sheryl, it was just fantastic. I mean -

Sheryl: Awesome.

Russ: - the caliber of people, to be able to listen to them, and then you actually get to hear them talk for 20 minutes, and then there's kind of a breakout session kind of between them, and you can get up close and personal and ask questions, too, right?

Sheryl: Mm hmm. My husband and I have attended events like this all over the country, mostly on the East Coast and the West Coast, never in the South, which is why we started it here. But you never had an opportunity to go up and talk to the speaker, to shake their hand, to get them to sign a book, to ask them a question about something that peaked your interest during a presentation. So, we created these very intimate Q&A sessions that each speaker, after they speak on the stage, come down and four of them at a time go into a break room, and there's a very small area, where you can go into that area, talk to them, ask them questions. So, not only are you with like-minded people in this little, intimate area, but you also have a 20- to 30-minute chance to really get up close and personal with the speaker that just spoke on the stage.

Russ: Wow, I didn't know that. So, the other people that do these kinds of events, I'm familiar with TED, a lot of people _________, they don't allow for that sort of up close and personal?

Sheryl: No. I've been to - in fact, this year I've been to 16 conferences already since January, and not one do you have an opportunity to get up close with the speakers.

Russ: Oh, my goodness. Okay, so are you out sort of recruiting when you got 16, and looking at speakers?

Sheryl: Absolutely. It is my job to travel the globe and try to find amazing people doing amazing things that are really changing the world that we don't know about, things that don't normally cross our desk, and my job is to find them and convince them to come to Houston to speak at The UP Experience.

Russ: What a job.

Sheryl: I know, it's the best. It's the best.

Russ: Well, I have to also admit that I've captured several interviews of UP Experience guests while they're in town, most notably Steve Wozniak, during the first event. He was fantastic, and several others, and golly, one of my favorites was the guy - I might say his name wrong - Ray Kurzweil, is that right?

Sheryl: Mm hmm, Kurzweil.

Russ: Oh, my God. He was great, and then last year, it was an all-star group, and you've also, though, already sort of have this year's lineup pretty much mapped out, right?

Sheryl: We have 11 to 13 of the speakers already booked out of the 16.

Russ: Okay. Well, I'm gonna want to get you to tell us about a few of those -

Sheryl: Okay.

Russ: - but before you do that, too, just share a little bit of the history. Who were some of your favorite guests that showed up at The UP Experience?

Sheryl: Wow. The first year, probably Malcolm Gladwell did a phenomenal presentation.

Russ: Yes.

Sheryl: Sir Ken Robinson on creativity.

Russ: Oh, yes. Yes.

Sheryl: Blew the audience away. The next year, probably Robert Ballard. He's the oceanographer who discovered the Titanic, and really taught us a lot about our oceans. Bill Nye the Science Guy was amazing last year.

Russ: He was funny, too. Golly, yeah.

Sheryl: He was great. Jessica Jackley, who most people didn't know, is the founder Kiva, a micro lending organization. She got a standing ovation for her phenomenal story. We had Dr. James Moss on sleep deprivation, something we all needed.

Russ: He was one of my favorites. In fact, I went to his breakout session, too, to ask him a couple of questions just about me, about getting old and not being able to sleep, and so -

Sheryl: Right.

Russ: - no, he was great, and then you mentioned Malcolm Gladwell, who I also got to interview. I still remember his presentation there, and what he talked about mostly there, I'm not sure if it was from Outliers - I think it was from Blink - this theory that now we're so pressed for time that people that are talented, if they don't make it big quickly, they kind of go away, and he talked about Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, and about how long it took them to become famous, and he was talking about Picasso. It was really cool. They're all great people. So, go ahead and why don't you share a little bit about this year's lineup?

Sheryl: Okay. Well, one of my favorites who I've tried for three years to get is Dan Pink, and he just recently wrote the book, Drive.

Russ: Right.

Sheryl: So, he's gonna talk about what motivates us all for success, and it's really both in your business and your personal life, and I've heard him speak numerous times. He is phenomenal, so I think he'll do an amazing job. We have Dr. Anthony Atala, who is a groundbreaking doctor on regenerative medicine, who's gonna add 10 to 20 years to all of our lives, hopefully in our age.

Russ: All right. Hopefully.

Sheryl: Yes, and regenerating with our own cells, organs and body parts that can be -

Russ: Cool.

Sheryl: - regenerated, and he's gonna actually demonstrate his three-dimensional printer on the stage, so that'll be a lot of fun.

Russ: Cool.

Sheryl: We have Sal Khan, who created the Khan Academy, which is an amazing online education tool that's now gonna change virtual education everywhere, really across the globe, and I'm so excited to meet Sal. We have Mark Freedman, who started Civic Ventures, which is all about baby boomers and this amazing group of individuals that are in their second half of life, who are looking for meaningful things to dedicate their lives to, and he's just created this amazing online opportunity to marry nonprofits and all these baby boomers.

Russ: Cool. Really cool.

Sheryl: Very exciting, yeah.

Russ: So, share with us the date for this year's big event.

Sheryl: October 27, on Thursday, is the big day, at the Stafford Center for the Performing Arts.

Russ: Okay, and say somebody's watching right now and they're saying, "Okay, I gotta go this year," how do they find out more?

Sheryl: You can go onto our website at www.theupexperience.com, and all the information to register is there.

Russ: Okay, and I know you said up front you almost have this year's lineup filled, but you haven't. Say somebody wants to sort of tune in and know who does fill up the lineup? Can they find that out at the website, as well?

Sheryl: Absolutely. We update everything on the website. There's a space on the website to insert your e?mail if you'd like to get my e?mail updates. I send them once a week in announcing the new speakers.

Russ: That's really cool. Now, before I let you go, Sheryl, we have lots of entrepreneurs out here that are doing business things, you're doing a business thing; yours just seems almost too good to be true, traveling around, seeing, meeting these people, negotiating. Is it as good as it looks? Is it always easy, or are there any difficulties in what you do?

Sheryl: Well, it's certainly not easy, but it's definitely a lot of fun, and some amazing challenges. To bring these thought leaders in from all over the world, most of which have never been to Houston -

Russ: Right. Right.

Sheryl: - which is interesting, and to bring them to Houston to speak for 20 minutes, which for also a lot of them is hard to do. Most of them speak for an hour and a half. The great thing is, they're taking their best bits of information and they're summarizing it into 20 minutes, so we're really getting the best of the best.

Russ: Right. Right.

Sheryl: So, you know, I've got challenges. It's like a puzzle to put all the speakers together to hit topics that are interesting, -

Russ: Sure.

Sheryl: - that are gonna affect our future, our children's future, so I've got to marry the topics that are interesting, find the experts in their fields, make sure ________ passionate. I have to see them first.

Russ: Right.

Sheryl: Passionate presentations on the stage, and then to get this intellectual community in Houston to attend, -

Russ: Right. Right.

Sheryl: - which is amazing. The audience alone is worth coming for. It's the best of the best of Houston. I mean it is clearly the most interesting people that want to be educated. Part of one of the most beautiful things about this event is all these amazing people we met in Houston. Both Ernie and I were born and raised here, and we didn't even know this community existed, so we love that part of it.

Russ: Cool. That's really cool. Okay. Again, October 27th?

Sheryl: October 27th.

Russ: All right, The UP Experience, and the website one more time?

Sheryl: www.theupexperience.com

Russ: Okay. Sheryl, I really appreciate you coming in and sharing The UP Experience story, and I appreciate you putting on The UP Experience.

Sheryl: Well, thank you -

Russ: You bet.

Sheryl: - and thanks for having me.

Russ: You bet. That's Sheryl Rapp, co-founder of The UP Experience. This is The BusinessMakers show, heard on the radio and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com.