Come join us for another Houston Hardware Meetup with some inspiring guest speakers lined up, as well refreshments provided by sponsors. There will be opportunities to make connections, see demos from the community, and trade expertise.

Houston Hardware Meetup is bringing professionals who build physical products together to foster ideas, enthusiasm, and solutions. They believe when related talent across unrelated fields collides, innovation is catalyzed and tough problems are solved faster.

Hosted by The Ion Prototyping Lab, a shared innovation and collaboration space with access to equipment, expertise, and technical training. It is located inside The Ion, the intersection of Houston’s culture, creativity, and innovation.

Hardware Meetups happen across over 30 cities around the world every month, helping bring together founders, engineers, and other hardware professionals to networks, share insights, and collaborate with one another.

Speakers

Elliott Martinez is a hardware designer at GRIND basketball, applying his extensive experience in both industrial design and engineering to bring interactive, accessible, and affordable sports tech to underserved communities. Elliott will discuss GRIND’s successful appearance on Shark Tank, illuminate the many challenges of design and manufacturing for hardware startups, and provide an engaging look into the inner workings of the GRIND machine.

Agenda

6:00-6:30pm  Arrival, mingle, grab refreshments
6:30-6:35pm  Welcome and introduction
6:35-7:30pm  Guest talks + audience Q&A
7:30-8:00pm  Community open mic +
8:00-9:00pm  Mix + mingle, pints at Second Draught
9:00pm  Depart

+ Anyone will have the chance for a 1 minute pitch to talk about what they are working on. Bring a demo and get double time!

Sponsors

informal is a freelance collective for the most talented independent professionals in the hardware ecosystem. With expertise in a diverse range of industries from consumer electronics to automotive, climate tech to medical devices, informal members work with clients at every stage to design, manufacture, and scale top-quality physical products. Whether you’re looking for a single contractor, a full-time employee, or an entire team of professionals to work on everything from product development to go-to-market strategy, the informal collective has the perfect collection of people for the job.

TheJigsApp provides made-to-measure electronic test jigs. With a fully parameterized system that fits into board designers existing workflow, TheJigsApp is the fastest and most efficient method to instrument your design with a bed-of-nails test fixture.

The Ion Prototyping Lab is where your ideas meet the designers, engineers, and fabricators that can make it a reality. Located at The Ion, our 6500 sqft site offers access to equipment, expertise, and technical training–a must for every inventor, innovator, and creator.

Interested in speaking at, hosting, or sponsoring a Hardware Meetup event? Fill out the involvement form.