mansurs on the boulevard

Among the long list of questions that nobody seems to know the answer to in this public health crisis, one of the most pressing is, When we finally get the spread of the virus under control and stop losing lives, will we also cure the Covid Economy?

There are not many people qualified to answer this question. Meet Steve Ceulemans.

Steve is originally from Belgium, where he got a degree in international business and management. After that, he got a Doctor of Science degree from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

You might well imagine that when Steve pursued these two very disparate avenues of academic study – business and tropical medicine – there were people who wondered if one would ever be able to use those two skillsets at the same time. Well, that time has arrived. As Executive Director of the Baton Rouge Health District, Steve Ceulemans is uniquely qualified to understand how this pandemic is undermining our economy.

Festival Fun Is Most Definitely Over

Remember the days before the Covid Economy? When you could go out to a restaurant? Or a bar? Or a music festival?

In Louisiana, we have over 400 festivals every year. From the internationally renowned – like Jazz Fest in New Orleans and Festival International here in Lafayette – to unique local favorites like the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival in Morgan City, or the Rice festival in Crowley.

And then there’s the literally thousands of bars and restaurants across the state, with regional specialties like smoked meat in Ville Platte, boudin in Broussard, or the muffuletta in New Orleans.

For now though, our Louisiana way of life has come to a grinding halt.

It’s tough times for all of us, but especially for folks in businesses that rely on social gathering. Not just because they’re closed down, but also because of the uncertainty of what their businesses will look like when we get back to normal.

Gus Rezende owns seven food and drink establishments in Acadiana, including Tula Tacos and Central Pizza, and through his company, Social Entertainment, he’s the promoter of a handful of festivals, among them the Acadiana Poboy Festival. How is Gus positioning his businesses for re-opening, and is he getting and Federal help through the Cares Act?

In New Orleans the Party Is On Pause

New Orleans might not have invented the concept of partying, but the city has certainly perfected it.

Before it became an alleged virus incubator, Mardi Gras in New Orleans was one of the most celebrated parties on earth. There are free parties every single night on Bourbon Street, and Frenchmen Street.

Even in the business world, New Orleans is known for socializing. Although conventions are meant to be places for doing business, there’s a reason Las Vegas and New Orleans are the country’s biggest convention destinations.

In New Orleans the worlds of tourism and conventions meet in the offices of an organization called New Orleans & Company - a city body that was formed by the recent combination of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation and the Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of New Orleans & Company is Mark Romig. Mark has been a guest on Out to Lunch before, under happier circumstances. Back then we would never have imagined that we would be discussing the details of turning the New Orleans Convention Center into a hospital.

Photos from this show by Jill Lafleur and more info is on our website https://itsbatonrouge.la/2020/04/07/the-covid-economy-april-7th-13th/

Last week's Covid Economy update is here.

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Imagine that you're the most beautiful person in the world. And you happen to have a sister, who is even more beautiful than you! If you didn't happen to be compared to your sister all the time, you'd be a really big deal. That's kind of how it is with the Baton Rouge performing arts. Baton Rouge is unfortunate in its proximity to its older sister, New Orleans. But there are actually a number of extraordinarily talented people in the Baton Rouge performing arts world. For example, Jamie Ray.

Jamie Ray is owner of Air Seekers Acrobatic Movement, a professional acrobatic company that focuses on cirque-style and physical theater performances. Jamie is a professional movement artist and instructor whose work is informed by her background in aerial dance, theater, and partner acrobatics. 

Vastine Stabler is Managing Artistic Director of Swine Palace, a non-profit, professional theater company supporting the educational mission of the LSU Department of Theater. Since its founding in 1992, Swine Palace has produced more than 68 productions, including many regional and world premiers that have advanced the company’s mission to produce plays of social relevance. Vastine has been in his current role at Swine Palace since the spring of 2018, previously serving as the theater’s director of marketing and communications from 2005-2010. 

Out to Lunch Baton Rouge is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard.

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As surprising as it may seem, in 2019 Newsweek magazine called Baton Rouge music Mecca. And named the local Listening Room as the best place in the US to hear live music!

The music industry in Louisiana is one of the state’s most powerful economic and cultural engines, though most of the credit and attention typically goes to New Orleans. Why is Baton Rouge music business overlooked? And what does the Capital Region have to offer in the music space?

Somebody who is well qualified to address these questions is Chris Maxwell. He's owner of the Red Dragon Listening Room a local venue for live music that, as its name implies, really focuses on the music and the quality of the sound its artists produce, instead of the glitz and glam you might find in a larger concert arena.

Founded in the early 2000s, the Red Dragon Listening Room showcases Louisiana talent. And giving back to the community – it is a nonprofit – not a business. The Listening Room puts money back into the arts and other nonprofit organizations.

Though it is tucked away on Florida Boulevard in a neighborhood where you might not be looking for it, The Listening Room was recognized in 2019 by Newsweek magazine, no less, as one of the best places to hear acoustic music in a city that Newsweek described as "one of the top 10 music meccas in the world.” 

Dustan Louque is a local artist, musician and songwriter, who was born in St. James Parish and came back to South Louisiana after spending time in Brooklyn.  Though Louque, as he is known, signed with a major record label early in his career, which led to a two-year stint touring and selling his music to films, he walked away from the corporate side of the business and these days, travels the country in his 1987 Westfalia,  performing year round and connecting on a more personal level with fans of his music.

Out to Lunch Baton Rouge is recorded over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. For more discussions over lunch about the Baton Rouge Music Business, check this out.

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In May 2013, New Orleans businessman John Georges bought Baton Rouge’s beloved family-owned newspaper The Advocate. At a time when media companies around the country have been down-sizing, shutting up shop, or going exclusively digital, the Baton Rouge Advocate has expanded into Acadiana and into New Orleans, ultimately vanquishing its rival there with the acquisition of the New Orleans Times Picayune. And the newspaper expansion has continued - now encompassing statewide more community papers than you can count on two hands, including New Orleans’ alternative weekly, Gambit.

We've known for some time that John Georges is one of the smartest business people in Louisiana. What we didn’t know, until his foray into newspapers, is that he is apparently one of the smartest business people in the USA. With over 8,000 journalists laid off nationwide over 2018-19, no-less than the President of the US repeatedly assailing the press and journalists as "the enemy of the people," and media pundits referring to this era as “Mediapocalypse,” it is instructive for the country and for lovers of a free and fair press to understand what exactly is the John Georges business model that allows him to keep growing The Advocate.

The person tasked with executing the Georges doctrine is Judi Terzotis, Publisher at The Advocate.

Judi is a veteran media executive, who grew up in Tennessee and spent 25 years of her career at Gannett—where she spent four years as president of Gannett Louisiana and two years as president of its Gulf Region, which includes five papers in Louisiana, two in Mississippi and one in Alabama.

Judi joined The Advocate parent company, Georges Media Group, in January 2018. Since then, Judi has grown the staff and circulation of The Acadiana Advocate, and played a key role in combining The New Orleans Advocate, The Times Picayune and its popular online platform NOLA.com, after the New Orleans acquisitions in 2019.

Host of Out to Lunch Baton Rouge, Stephanie Riegel, is a veteran journalist herself, having worked in TV and print for over two decades and currently serving as editor of the Baton Rouge Business Report.  This one-on-one conversation over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard is a rare and valuable opportunity to understand the current state of both local and national media organizations and especially the future of news delivery.

You can check out other conversations over lunch about local media here.

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As technology continues to evolve and change the world around us, our local economy is changing too and adapting — taking advantage of the opportunities the tech sector creates and preparing the next generation of tech workers for the jobs that need filling today and in the years to come.

Jacquelyn Craddock is Director of Workforce Initiatives at Nexus Louisiana, an arm of the Research Park Corporation that connects growth-focused companies to capital, resources and talent. In that role, Jacquelyn oversees a relatively new program called Apprenti Louisiana—an apprenticeship program that provides education and paid on-the-job training for those interested in joining the tech sector. Apprentices work in computer programming, web developers, software developers, IT support personnel and network security administrators, to name a few. Jacquelyn is a native of south Louisiana and graduate of LSU, who came back to the state to work at LSU more than a decade ago after first getting a master’s degree in Public Administration at Tennessee and working several years in that state. 

Casey Roussel is CEO of Entrical, a Baton Rouge based tech company that specializes in technology solutions in the security sector. Entrical is a new name for a company that’s been around a while— it was previously called Perceptive Intelligence and it has several products, including a database that allows law enforcement agencies to share information with each other, a facial recognition  and object comparison software, and Platform XI, which enables law enforcement and commercial users to share information designed to keep those users safe. Casey has been CEO of the company since mid 2019, though he was working with the firm before that in his capacity as an IT consultant.

Out to Lunch Baton Rouge is recorded over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show and more information about Out to Lunch and our guests on our website.

There's more lunchtime conversation about Baton Rouge tech here.

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Aging is a hot topic in America these days. So is anti-aging. On the one hand, the Baby Boomer generation are now in their late 50s which means big changes to our workforce, retirement system, and healthcare delivery system, all of which are creating business opportunities for companies that meet the needs of the aging population. On the other hand, the relentless desire to remain youthful has created a desire to stay and look young, which to some degree is setting up a question we're going to have answer: Aging Versus Anti-Aging.  

On the side of aging, Maria Yiannopolous is Director of Community Relations at Southside Gardens,  a retirement community of independent living and assisted living units in the heart of Baton Rouge’s Southdowns neighborhood.

Unlike most retirement communities are owned by large chains, Southside Gardens is a family-owned business.  Maria’s background is in marketing, which she did in her native New Orleans for more than two decades. Since 2017, she has been spreading the word about Southside Gardens and helping shape their message. 

Dr. Todd Howell is co-owner of The Aesthetic Medicine and Anti-Aging Clinics of Louisiana, which, as its name suggests, is in the business of trying to keep us from aging – or, at least, from looking like we’re aging. The Aesthetic Medicine Institute and Anti Aging Clinics were founded in 2009 and have locations in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. In the years since, the business has grown exponentially, as the global market for aesthetic medicine has increased from more than $10billion in 2016 to what is expected to be nearly $27billion by 2024. Todd is an emergency room physician by training, who moved into aesthetic medicine more than a decade ago and has since become one of the local pioneers in the field.

Out to Lunch Baton Rouge is recorded over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard.

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Aging is a hot topic in America these days. So is anti-aging. On the one hand, the Baby Boomer generation are now in their late 50s which means big changes to our workforce, retirement system, and healthcare delivery system, all of which are creating business opportunities for companies that meet the needs of the aging population. On the other hand, the relentless desire to remain youthful has created a desire to stay and look young, which to some degree is setting up a question we're going to have answer: Aging Versus Anti-Aging.  

On the side of aging, Maria Yiannopolous is Director of Community Relations at Southside Gardens,  a retirement community of independent living and assisted living units in the heart of Baton Rouge’s Southdowns neighborhood.

Unlike most retirement communities are owned by large chains, Southside Gardens is a family-owned business.  Maria’s background is in marketing, which she did in her native New Orleans for more than two decades. Since 2017, she has been spreading the word about Southsdie Gardens and helping shape their message. 

Dr. Todd Howell is co-owner of The Aesthetic Medicine and Anti-Aging Clinics of Louisiana, which, as its name suggests, is in the business of trying to keep us from aging – or, at least, from looking like we’re aging. The Aesthetic Medicine Institute and Anti Aging Clinics were founded in 2009 and have locations in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. In the years since, the business has grown exponentially, as the global market for aesthetic medicine has increased from more than $10billion in 2016 to what is expected to be nearly $27billion by 2024. Todd is an emergency room physician by training, who moved into aesthetic medicine more than a decade ago and has since become one of the local pioneers in the field.

Out to Lunch Baton Rouge is recorded over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard.

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According to the Global Wellness Institute, the global health and wellness industry is now worth $4.2 trillion. The industry has been growing with 12.8% between 2015 and 2017 and represents a whopping 5.3% of global economic output. For local entrepreneurs, that is creating a lot of opportunities – but that also means there’s a lot of competition.

Nicole Cummins is owner of Barre 3, a boutique fitness studio that’s part of a Portland, Oregon-based chain with more than 130 locations around the country. Barre 3 offers a full body, low-impact cardio workout that incorporates deep long hold, micromovements and the traditional ballet bar.  Nicole brought Barre 3 to baton Rouge in January 2017, when she opened the first and so far only studio in the Acadian Village Shopping Center. Today some 300-500 members a week come through the studio to take one of the dozens of classes offered. 

Kirk Vidrine is a nutritionist and kinesiologist with his own company, V Well Solutions, that is marketing wellness programs to small and mid-sized companies in the region. In conjunction, Kirk also has created a healthy eating and weight loss program called Fit Foodies, that teaches users through videos, blogs and detailed recipes how to cook and eat healthful meals that will help you lose weight in eight weeks. And, equally remarkable, this life-changing experience is, intentionally, seriously affordable. 

Out to Lunch is recorded over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You'll find photos from this show by Karrry Hosford and more info on our guests and Out to Lunch crew on our website.

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Down on Silicon Bayou, local Baton Rouge companies are carving out an amazing space in the tech sector. They’re designing impressive software platforms and tools that are attracting worldwide attention.

Steve McKinney  is the Chief Operating Officer of Cell Control, a Baton Rouge company that, in 2009, came up with technology to help eliminate distracted driving. In the years since, Cell Control has become the global leader in this field by selling its services to companies—big Fortune 500 companies—that have huge fleets of potentially distracted drivers. One reason the technology is so popular is because it is simple. It pairs a Bluetooth device with your cell phone to disable texting and Web surfing from the driver’s seat while still allowing a passenger’s phone to have full function. With over 100,000 users, Cell Control is saving big companies with fleets of drivers a lot of money, time, and frankly, lives. 

Calvin Fabre, CEO of Envoc, a Baton Rouge based digital agency that does custom software development, mobile applications, advertising and branding campaigns, web design, web applications, intranets, and portals. Calvin founded the company in the early 2000s. In the years since, Envoc has grown to more than 30 employees, a second location in Hammond and a reputation as one of the go-to software development firms in the Capital region. One of Envoc’s most innovative new products is is LA Wallet —a digital drivers license that you have on your phone and that serves as a legally accepted form of ID. As an added feature LA Wallet has a Verify function so you can check the background of an Uber driver  or, even the status of contractors who come to your home to do repairs. 

Photos at Mansurs on the Boulevard by Karry Hosford.

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It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve flown across the country or around the world, for that matter. There’s something that continues to dazzle and fascinate us wingless, human creatures every time we get in an airplane, whether a single prop or a jumbo jet, and get ready for take off. 

When cars were invented, they were originally known as "horseless carriages." In the same way, a few years ago we started talking about "unmanned aircraft" - the contraptions we now call "drones." 

On this edition of Out to Lunch Baton Rouge, Stephanie Riegel is talking traditional and unmanned aviation.

Mike Edwards is Director of Aviation at the Baton Rouge Metro Airport. BTR, as it’s known, is a regional airport with three carriers that serve around a million  passengers a year from its 1,800 acres in north Baton Rouge. Mike took over at the helm of the airport in November 2018, after previously serving as Interim Director and, before that as Operations Manager. Mike previously worked at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport before coming to BTR. 

Billy Gibson has an aviation company based out of Denham Springs, called  G Force Skyshots. It’s a communications consulting firm that specializes in aerial photography and videography with a specialty in drones. Drone still and video photography has all sorts of applications for businesses in sectors such as real estate, industry, agriculture, and construction, as well as shooting special events. Billy is an award winning writer, photographer, videographer and marketing professional with over 30 years experience, who has had his pilot’s license since 1989. 

You can get ready for take off and learn more about Mike, Billy, and Stephanie, as well as seeing photos from this show, recorded over lunch at Mansurs On The Boulevard, at our website https://link.chtbl.com/6MIjfVRb

Get ready for take off to the movies on mushrooms, with this conversation about drones, film, and fungus. 

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If you think "Silicon Valley" sounds cool but "Silicon Swamp" doesn't, you're probably not from South Louisiana.

Here in South Louisiana we love the swamp, it's a part of who we are. The reason "Silicon Swamp" might sound weird is that we are less inclined to identify ourselves as the home of tech innovation. Well, maybe it's time for an altitude adjustment! There are  impressive start-up businesses here that maybe you've never heard of but that are turning heads around the country. And beyond.

Casey Roussel is Executive Vice President of Cloud Gavel, a company that is revolutionizing the way law enforcement officers do their jobs. More specifically, Cloud Gavel has created software that streamlines the way officers obtain warrants in the field by enabling them to complete the entire warrant process electronically,  without ever having to leave the scene of a crime. The electronic warrant system allows officers to write a bulletin and send it to a judge at the push of a button. The judge then receives an email notification alerting them that there’s a warrant to review, which they can sign or revise and send back all within a matter of minutes. Cloud Gavel is a law enfocement revolution, and it started here in Louisiana. 

Dale Pfost is another revolutionary. Dale is CEO of Microbiome Therapuetics, a biotech company that is developing and marketing therapies that help keep you healthy by interacting with the gastrointestinal microbiome. Growing research suggests that a variety of conditions are impacted by the health of your GI microbiome. BiomeBliss, the flagship product of Dale’s company, is a berry flavored preobiotic blend that is made into a drink or spread and is intended to be an addition to your daily eating routine. You can think of BiomeBliss as a way to make sure you have the proper amount of fruits and vegetables in a day, with fewer calories. 

Silicon Swamp is real! Out to Lunch is recorded over lunch at  Mansurs on the Boulevard . You can find photos from this show by Karry Hosford and more at our website https://link.chtbl.com/6MIjfVRb

There's more Silicon Swamp high tech and lo-tech here.

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There aren't many occasions to talk about fine art and movies in the same sentence. And you'd be forgiven for thinking there's even less occasion to consider the financing of movies and fine art as having anything to do with each other. And that's why we have lunch! So folks from what might seem to be disparate endeavors can talk and find out they actually have something in common.

Ann Connelly is a legend in the art world.

Ann is founder and owner of Ann Connelly Fine Art where she is a curator, interior designer, and consultant to homeowners and businesses. Over the past 25 years, Ann has grown her business into a gallery that today carries the works of more than 40 creatives, and as a consultancy to some of the most prominent companies and institutions in Baton Rouge, that have hired Ann to hang art on their walls. 

Jillian Hall is a documentary fiim maker. She also heads up the Baton Rouge operations of NOVAC, the oldest media arts nonprofit organization in the Gulf South. NOVAC was started in New Orleans in the early 1970s as a way to provide media training and production resources to underserved communities. Since 2013, the organization has had a presence in Baton Rouge, and in the years since has trained hundreds of people for creative industry jobs, developed original documentary content and created innovative youth media programs. 

Fine art and movies might not have a lot in common in Hollywood or Paris, but they do here in Baton Rouge.

Out to Lunch is recorded over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You'll find photos from this show and more at our website https://link.chtbl.com/6MIjfVRb

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Every place has a history and a past, but preserving the best of it and keeping it relevant doesn’t just happen, you have to work at it. On this show we're very bullish on keeping Baton Rouge vital economically and socially, but today we're talking about looks - keeping Baton Rouge beautiful. We're not being shallow and fixated on appearance, cities can be more attractive economically and socially as they age - with the right approach to beauty and preservation.

Michael Desmond is an architect and scholar in the LSU School of Art and Design, with a particular expertise in the history of architecture. For the past decade, Michael has been studying the architecture of the historic LSU campus. Since receiving a grant from the Getty Foundation in 2008,  Michael has produced an architectural history on the buildings, a technical report documenting the external condition of the buildings, a large public exhibition that traveled the state throughout the university’s 150th anniversary in 2010 and a book. 

Fairleigh Cook Jackson is Executive Director of Preserve Louisiana, a statewide preservation organization was founded back 1963 with the purpose of promoting local interest in the heritage of Baton Rouge and the state of Louisiana. Preserve Louisiana, which was formerly known as the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, works to preserve historical structures and promote cultural awareness, while also encouraging economic growth that revitalizes our communities through historic preservation.  

Out to Lunch Baton Rouge is recorded over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard . You can find photos from this show by Karry Hosford and more at our website https://link.chtbl.com/6MIjfVRb

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Time was, every town had cobblers and tailors. Fairy tales and history books alike are replete with references to these noble tradesmen, who kept people "shodded" and clothed. Today, you can still look good in a sharp suit and shiny shoes.

Commerce has evolved from local service providers to department stores, big box retailers and online sites, but, here in Baton Rouge, although old fashioned businesses have become fewer and far between, they haven't completely disappeared.

Clyde Lawrence is owner of MIlitello’s Shoe Repair, a venerable Baton Rouge business that has been around since 1972. Everybody knows Militello’s and gets their shoes repaired there, or, at least, polished and shined.

Clyde came to Baton Rouge from his native Bossier City to seek his fortune in the chemical plants in the mid-1970s. He stumbled instead into Militello’s and landed a job. He’s been there ever since. In early 2018, he and his wife bought the business from longtime owner Fred Militello, who was retiring. Arguably, no one was better suited to run the service-based business but Clyde,  at the time, was himself thinking about retirement. Instead, he jumped in with both feet, took the plunge and today is not only the local tradition alive, he's growing the business! 

Geno Brown is co-owner of Brown and Brown Custom Clothiers.

Geno has been a custom tailor almost his entire career, because Brown and Brown is a family-owned business that was started under the name Fashion Limited, by Geno’s father, the late Eugene Brown, who died in 2019.

Today, Geno and his brother, O’Lindsey Brown, run the company, which was re-branded in 1993 when the Browns moved away from carrying ready-to-made clothes and started making their own custom, handmade garments using fabrics the Browns find on buying trips around the world.

Geno didn’t necessarily intend to be a haberdasher. He went to Morehouse College and graduated from Southern University with dual degrees in math and physics, then taught physics for a year before joining the business. He holds certified master tailor and certified master clothiers designations.

Out to Lunch Baton Rouge is recorded over lunch at Mansurs On The Boulevard restaurant. You can see photos from this show, and more, at our website https://link.chtbl.com/6MIjfVRb

Check out Baton Rouge's other premiere tailor Manuel Martinez.

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"Retail apocalypse" is a term we’re starting to hear frequently. It suggests a coming meltdown of retail reality due to the impact of Amazon and other online retailers on brick and mortar stores. Stephine Riegel's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Baton Rouge are, in two very different ways, fighting it out on the front line of retail apocalypse.

Chris Russo Blackwood is co-owner of Russo Ross, a popular women’s boutique on Jefferson Highway here in Baton Rouge. Chris didn’t start out in the retail sector. She was a journalist with The Advocate and then later with In Register Magazine, which she headed as publisher. In 2011, Chris sold the magazine and wrote a true crime book about the murder of local businessman Ted Kergan, then, in 2012, before the retail apocalypse got started, she and longtime friend Susan Ross decided to take their careers in a different direction and opened Russo Ross to offer classic, well-made clothes at a reasonable price. 

Kevin Langley is on the other side of the apocalypse. Kevin is a Baton Rouge based entrepreneur and entrepreneurial expert. He's President & Co-founder of Entrepreneurs Across Borders, a global nonprofit organization that helps high potential entrepreneurs in developing countries, and in the retail sector he's working with the Ebay Retail Revival program, an anti-apocalypse initiative launched by Ebay a couple of years ago that came to baton rouge in May 2019. The program is a way to help small businesses learn how to compete in the digital marketplace by training them over a 12-month period, providing them with individualized coaching and promotional support so that they can learn to succeed on platforms like Ebay. 

This episode of Out to Lunch Baton Rouge was recorded over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard restaurant in Baton Rouge. See photos from this show and learn more about Out to Lunch Baton Rouge here.

Hear more about Baton Rouge retail here.

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Technology is all around us today, making possible things we never even imagined. Here's two: an app that is the Uber of medical care, and Virtual Reality that  makes it possible to train employees to work in a chemical plants or recreate the battle of Okinawa. Perhaps an equally surprising fact about these innovations is that they are being created here in south Louisiana.

Vashon Craft is Director of Community Relations at a company called Ready Responders, a New Orleans-based startup that expanded into the Baton Rouge market in 2019, bringing with it its unique service of on-demand health care to your door – or wherever you are. 

Ready Responders dispatches medics on-demand to provide non-emergency medical care—then offers follow up care with nurses and physicians assistants. It’s all done via a smart phone app using software the company developed.  

Cody Louviere is the founder of King Crow Studios, a local software development firm that specializes in virtual reality and video game development. Virtual Reality isn’t just a gimmick; it’s a tool that King Crow is using to create training experiences and platforms for customers that include LED FastStart, ExxonMobil, The Department of Defense, and The Alliance Safety Council.

This show is recorded over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard in Baton Rouge.

You can see photos from this show, and more, here.

Check out other Baton Rouge tech developers here.

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As the tech industry evolves and matures, all sorts of new opportunities are created for entrepreneurs, who see where existing technologies don't meet a need or don't go far enough to deliver what customers demand. If you listen to national shows like "How I Built This" or Freakonomics, you're familiar with the type of wildly creative person who doesn't take no for an answer and comes up with a great idea that at the outset might seem odd or impossible. Those kinds of ideas are not all born in Silicon Valley. We have them here too. Meet Omnidek and Sellswipe, and their creators, Chris Jordan and D. Marcus Glasper.

Chris Jordan's Omnidek is an all-in-one business platform geared toward the construction industry that consolidates all the apps a company needs to run its expense reports, payroll, project management and so on, and merges them onto a single system.

Chris got the idea for this platform when, after several years selling software to construction companies and realizing all the inefficiencies of having multiple software systems, he was watching a movie about the early years of Facebook s founding and thought ,"If this dude can make 80 billion I can make 1 billion." He's on the way.

D Marcus Glasper is Vice President of Sellswipe, a homegrown app that allows its users to do a hyper local product search to find items and businesses in their own communities so that they can shop local and support the local economy. The app also provides a platform that connects users with their friends so they can see what their friends are buying, selling and recommending. It's a social marketplace app in the truest sense of the word.

Out to Lunch Baton Rouge is recorded over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard.

You can see photos from this show by Karry Hosford, and more, at our website https://link.chtbl.com/6MIjfVRb

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We talk a lot about business on this show, and what it takes to be successful in business. On this edition of Out to Lunch Stephanie focuses on an aspect of business that doesn't typically get so much attention: ethics.

Aaron Beam is a former executive who travels around the country lecturing on ethics in business. It's a topic he knows well. In the late 1990s, Aaron participated in a 2 billion securities fraud scandal at Health South, the extremely successful Fortune 500 company he had co founded in the 1980s and helped lead as CFO. When the fraud was discovered, Aaron had opportunity in prison to reflect on what he had done. In the years since, he has taken those lessons learned and now tries to help others avoid making the same mistake.

Tom Ryan is Professor of Theology and Ministry at Loyola University in New Orleans, and Director of the school s Institute for Ministry, which has an extension program in Baton Rouge. Tom is an expert on the Catholic Church and its teaching and has been nationally recognized for his research on the history of biblical interpretation, the history of spirituality and faith, and popular culture.

Professor Ryan also speaks regularly on Pope Francis, who recently published a document on the Call to Holiness in Today's World. In that document, the pope makes a special point about the call to holiness in business and the marketplace.

Stephanie Riegel takes an unorthodox but fascinating pause for reflection in this lunchtime conversation at Mansurs on the Boulevard.

Photos by Karry Hosford and more information is at our website -https://link.chtbl.com/6MIjfVRb 

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We hear a lot on this show from entrepreneurs — some successful, some just starting out— about what they do and what makes them tick. On this edition of Out to Lunch we turn our attention to a whole new breed of business people: high school entrepreneurs. 

Deborah Sternberg is founder and chairperson of the Baton Rouge affiliate of a nationwide organization called Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA).

Deborah founded the local chapter of YEA in 2018, after more than a decade as President of her family's business, Starmount Life Insurance and in just two years, the academy has already created some remarkable successes.

YEA partners with LSU's E.J. Ourso College of Business to train its students and help them launch companies by generating business ideas tied to their interests, writing business plans, filing their business with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office and pitching to a shark-take like investor panel for seed funding.  

Channing Hall, is a junior at Baton Rouge Magnet High School, where she is a member of the award-winning debate team. Channing is also involved in theater, and is the founder of Backstage, a theater management app she designed that allows directors to better communicate with their cast and crew. The tool is especially useful for small and community theaters that might need a little help with organization.

Trevor Turner is a junior at Catholic High. Trevor is the founder of Dormenity - a web-based real-world service that takes away the stress of college move-in day by combining storage and delivery. Dormenity houses students’ stuff and moves it to and from their dorm rooms each semester, based on orders they place on line.  

Out to Lunch Baton Rouge is recorded over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard in Baton Rouge. You can find photos from this show, and much more here.

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Teach For America is a nationwide initiative to address the shirtage of teachers in the US. A recent study estimated that the nationwide shortage in 2018, which was around 110 thousand, is expected to nearly double to 200 thousand by 2025.

Teach For America is an organization that seeks to enlist and mobilize bright, motivated future leaders and put them to work for two year stints, helping improve some of the nation’s poorest performing and most under-served public schools.

Laura Vinsant heads the South Louisiana region of Teach for America. Laura is an alum of LSU and its Manship School of Mass Communications, who was drawn to TFA’s mission after graduating in 2007 because of her positive experience as a volunteer tutor. Laura spent the next two years teaching second and third grade students at a school in North Baton Rouge, and became so invested with the organization she stayed with it. Since 2016, Laura has led the South Louisiana TFA region, which was one of the six original regions the organization served. Today, Laura oversees a cohort of more than 200 teachers, who last year impacted more than 15-thousand students in the four parish region, which includes Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana and Pointe Coupee. 

Lucas Spielfogel is a Teach for America alumnus, who taught 7th grade at Baker Middle School during his tenure with TFA from 2010-2012. Lucas was born in New York, raised in south Florida, went back up north for college, attending Yale University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s in history. Lucas joined TFA to give something back and after two years was so hooked on his new community that he joined the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition, an organization that helps high-achieving, under resourced teens prepare, excel and graduate from college. Since 2013, Lucas has led the organization as Executive Director, growing the number of students it serves from 50 to more than 250 across nine school districts.

Although many of us pride ourselves on how many generations back we can trace our Louisiana roots, we can be equally proud of the caliber and contribution of young people like Laura and Lucas who make the choice to move here and who are making such a significant contribution to our region.

Photos over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard.

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