David Ruben and John Berkowitz, co-founders of OJO Labs, one of the startups featured in the SHN 2018 Austin Tech Calendar, photo by John Davidson.

By LAURA LOREK
Publisher of Silicon Hills News

Austin is shining brightly in the month of December with all kinds of great events to put knowledge into your noggin. But it’s also a time to have fun and celebrate our successes, which is why we invite you to our 2018 Austin Tech Calendar Party on Dec. 14th at the Zebra. We hope to see you there as we spotlight 12 of Austin’s movers and shakers in the tech industry. And we’ll continue to celebrate them throughout 2018 as each startup or technology advocate gets a month as a “high tech pinup.” So even if you can’t make the party (tickets are limited at this point), please buy a tech calendar to support the work we do at Silicon Hills News all year around. We’ve entered our 7th year as an independent woman-owned media company. Now that’s something to celebrate. Plus, 20 percent of the proceeds of ticket and calendar sales go to Austin Pets Alive!

Tuesday – Dec. 5: The Austin Forum’s Annual Tech for Giving and Sharing Event
Where: Impact Hub North, 5540 N. Lamar Blvd.
When: Doors and cash bar open at 5:45 p.m. and presentations begin at 6:15 p.m.
What: Speakers include Barbary Brunner, Austin Tech Council, Chelsea Collier, Digi.City, John Nehme, Allies Against Slavery, Leo Ramirez Jr. Encast, Zoe Schlag, Techstars Impact and Monica Maldonado Williams, The New Philanthropists. Admission is free but this month, they ask participants to bring a new, unwrapped toy for its Operation Blue Santa Toy Drive. Toy Joy will also be onsite with gift cards to donate.

Tuesday: Dec. 5th: Women in Tech Mega Happy Hour Gathering
Where: Apanas Coffee & Beer, 11501 Rock Rose, No. 118
When: 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
What: A quarterly mega happy hour and networking mixer with the goal of connecting women in tech, data and code in ATX. They are also partnering with Dress for Success Austin to do a drive for shoes and purses at the event.

Wednesday – Dec. 5: iCONIC Exchange Austin
Where: 800 Congress Ave.
When: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
What: The event put on by Inc. and CNBC features local entrepreneurs and business leaders and Shark Tank’s Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary.

Wednesday – Dec. 6: Unconscious Biases
Where: Accruent, 11500 Alterra Parkway #110
When: 5:45 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
What: Unconscious bias can affect how people make decisions. This panel explores what unconscious bias is, how it affects us, and what we can do about it. Panelists include Shonte Jovan Taylor, an author, neuroscientist, success trainer and social entrepreneur, Kate Wilkinson, who oversees Accurent’s recruiting team, Ashley Jennings, co-founder of DivInc and co-owner and executive producer of Spero Labs and Jenn Lowe, an active leader in Accruent EmpoWer.

Thursday – Dec. 7: Austin Tech Happy Hour
Where: The Dogwood, 715 W. 6th Street
When: 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
What: Since 2007, Bryan Menell has been hosting the Austin Tech Happy Hour. It’s an informal gathering of Austin’s technology community and is always a fun and festive event.

Friday- Dec. 8: DivInc Demo Day
Where: Google, 500 W. 2nd Street, 29th floor
When: 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
What: It’s the Fall 2017 DivInc cohort’s Demo Day. Listen to pitches by: Roman Gonzalez, founder of Gardenio, Shambrekia Wise, founder of FuzeU, Yogi Patel, founder of juzeit, Wes Riddick and Cristina Rodgers, founder of the Maximus Box, Sara Brinton, founder of Penguino Travel, Ashley Behnke, founder of Spot Loc8r and Airion Watkins-Clark, founder of WutzGood Inc.

Friday – Dec. 8: Hack Austin presented by The City of Austin and Galvanize
Where: Galvanize, 119 Nueces Street
When: 6 p.m. Friday to 4 p.m. on Sunday
What: A weekend-long hackathon featuring data enthusiasts, developers, designers, analysts, data scientists and data engineering. They are going to tackle strategic initiatives for the City of Austin with a focus on health and safety. The event ends in a demo pitch event on Sunday to a panel of judges.

Saturday- Dec. 9: Hello World Demo Day
Where: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos Street
When: 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
What: Hello World’s Fall 2017 class featuring students from all over Austin will present projects covering a wide range of formats including mobile app competition, live coding competitions, live demos on data science concepts and more.

Monday – Dec. 11 – Sputnik ATX’s A Very B2C Christmas BBQ
Where: Sputnik ATX Headquarters, 301 Congress, Suite 2200
When: 1 p.m.
What: Sputnik ATX is hosting a barbecue lunch for entrepreneurs. It’s a chance to meet the Sputnik ATX team and learn more about the accelerator. The theme is “A Very B2C Christmas” and interested participants are asked to send their best ideas for a B2C product or service as part of a contest to attend.

Tuesday – Dec. 12 – Wednesday, Dec. 20 – Happy Hanukkah

Wednesday – Dec. 13th – Startup Grind Holiday Party
Where: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos Street
When: 7 p.m.
What: Startup Grind is hosting a holiday party at Capital Factory for tech entrepreneurs.

Thursday Daytime – Dec. 14th – Artificial Intelligence Conference
Where: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos Street: First Floor
When: 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
What: A conference on artificial intelligence by Navidar spotlighting Austin-based AI pioneers featuring several question and answer panels.

Thursday – Dec. 14th – Silicon Hills News 2018 Austin Tech Startup Calendar Party
Where: The Zebra, 98 San Jacinto
When: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
What: Silicon Hills News is hosting its annual calendar party to celebrate its fourth annual calendar and the technology startups and innovators featured in it. There’s still a few tickets left to the party which kicks off at 6 p.m. at The Zebra. We’ll have Mama Fu’s thanks to TriNet, our food sponsor, and Drink Slingers will be tending bar. We’ll have Austin East Cider chilling, Twisted X beer, Champagne, Rose, White Wine, Pinot Noir, Red wine, ShadeTree Lemonade, HeyDay Cold Brew Coffee, Topo Chico and more. Thanks to our sponsors: ServiceDirect, Manzer Communications, Underminer Studios. And our entertainment sponsor: Sputnik Accelerator. And a big thank you to our venue sponsor: The Zebra and our calendar sponsors: TARC Technology Solutions, InnoTech and the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

Monday – Dec. 25 – Merry Christmas

Tuesday – Dec. 26 – Jan. 1 – Kwanzaa

Monday – Jan. 1 – Get your 2018 Austin Tech Calendar and kick off the year right!