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Fourth Annual Tour de Pink

Mike McGuff talks about the Fourth Annual Tour de Pink, a major event of Pink Ribbons Project.  qtags is a sponsor of Pink Ribbons and Allison Gower from qtags is an avid cyclist and will again be participating in the Ride.  If you are in Houston please join the ride 9/7 -- and if you are not close enough to join us -- be a Virtual Rider.

JOIN the Pink Ribbons news group - text PINK to 78247

Pink Ribbons Project presents its Fourth Annual Tour de Pink fundraising bike ride on Sunday, September 7! Presented by Compass Bank, Tour de Pink 2008 starts and ends on the campus of Prairie View A&M University, near Hempstead, TX.

Online registration for Tour de Pink is $25, with a minimum $75 fundraising pledge. To register, or for more information, go to www.tourdepink.org or call 713.524.PINK. All proceeds will benefit Pink Ribbons Project, which helps provide funds for breast-cancer awareness, education, screening and follow-up care for medically underserved women and all those touched by breast cancer in the Greater Houston area.
This family-friendly event has 12-, 23-, 47-, 63- and 100-mile routes for cyclists of all levels, plus the Pink Phantom "virtual rider" option for those who like to sleep in. On ride day, enjoy beautiful Texas scenery, the fun of "Pink Pit Stops" along the way and a festival at the finish line with food, prizes, and entertainment.

Pink Ribbon Project's Pink Power provides funding for mammograms, diagnostic work-ups, biopsies and other follow-up treatment for the medically under-served women in the greater Houston area.

Since 1998, the Pink Ribbons Project through it's Pink Power program has collaborated with The Rose, a non-profit organization for breast cancer screening and diagnosis, and has served over 1400 women. Since most public and private funding for breast cancer is limited to screening the woman over 50 years old, the signifigance of Pink Power is that it creates a pathway to reach and serve the younger woman. The woman in her thirties and forties often encounters barriers to standard breast cancer screening and usually requires full diagnostic work-ups.

Establishing and maintaining the Pink Power program provides critical funding for The Rose, Harris County Hospital District and other area breast screening clinics to handle the special needs of this age group. For many of these women especially, Pink Power provides the entrance into screening and ultimately into treatment.

qtags and REV featured in Startup Houston

Startup Houston's Josh Tabin posts about REV -
free, green, transportation today in Going Green with REV Houston.

Josh writes -

Perhaps you were driving around the downtown Houston area recently and came across a white and green electric vehicle transporting some environmentally conscious passengers to their next business meeting. If you see it again, waive hello to the guys from REV Houston, Houston’s newest FREE and GREEN transportation service.

REV (or Ride Electric Vehicles) currently operates one vehicle in the downtown-midtown area of Houston with plans to add a second vehicle in the next few weeks (the second vehicle will be a 6 seater versus the 4 seater they currently have). The vehicles are GEM Vehicles from Chrysler and are 100% electric powered:

“GEM battery-electric vehicles are classified as low-speed vehicles, or neighborhood electric vehicles, and are street legal in nearly all 50 states on public roads posted at 35 mph or less. With a top speed of 25 mph, GEM cars have a range of up to 30 miles on a charge and are great for traveling around neighborhoods, city centers or job sites. GEM vehicles are battery-electric, operate on a 72-volt battery system and plug into a standard 110-volt outlet. What makes GEM vehicles so unique is that they can be recharged anytime, anywhere a 110-volt outlet is available and recharge in approximately six to eight hours.”

To request a ride simply call 1.877.Go.REV.Go or visit one of the company’s “REV Stops” for a code you can text to Qtags (another great Houston startup we profiled last year). The stops are as follows:

• The Coffee Groundz (REV1)
• The Rice Lofts (REV2)
• El Patio (REV3)

The only cost for the ride is a gratuity. The company plans to subsidize their costs initially by selling advertising space on the vehicles.

“It was Opening Day 2007 for the Houston Astros,” states Erik Ibarra, co-founder of REV Houston. “I went for a ride on a pedi-cab and thought, ‘This guy would have it so much easier if he had a golf cart.’ I started looking into street legal electric vehicles for about a year and the concept blossomed from there.”

Ibarra also mentioned that the company plans to test additional markets within Houston for expansion, such as Rice Village, Washington Avenue and Westheimer in the future.

qtags sponsors Houston Celebrate Enterprise 2008

qtags - mobile made simple - is a proud sponsor of the 2008 Houston Celebrate Enterprise event.  This 2nd annual celebration takes place in Houston May 13-16 at various well-known Houston locations. The event includes the annual Battle of the Business bands programs - where you can vote for your favorite using qtags text.

This annual event is presented by The Houston Business Journal, Oracle, PKF, Sterling Bank, The Sullivan Group and many other Houston-based and national businesses. Learn more at www.celebrateenterprise.com

qtags key presentor at McMillen Communications 2008 Summit

qtags will be a key presenter at the McMillen Communications 2008 Summit in March 08.  This circulation-maximation event will feature industry experts including Tony Silber, publisher of Folio and Circulation Management and Andre Bello, a world-renowed story teller & motivational speaker.

qtags powers Find a Band for Carnival 08

Through a partnership with iMedia Caribbean, qtags text has been powering a 'Find a Band' program for Carnival 08.  The first week of the event garnered over 30,000 text-to-find requests. 

Results of favorite band votes (also powered by qtags) are now being streamed live by Sweet100 -- listen now!

The text-messaging services are being integrated throughout CTNTWorld's broadcasts and new products are being developed for the broadcasts by the interactive team at iMedia.

Alert System for College using text-messaging

qtags text is supporting an Emergency Alert System for William Jewel College.

The campus-wide Emergency Alert System provides instant cell phone communication to all members of the college community who choose to be a part of the network. The system is reserved exclusively for two specific scenarios: school closings for day classes due to inclement weather and emergency situations that are in progress on the campus.

This is another example how organizations are integrating text-messaging into communication plans, leveraging its accessibility, real-time nature and cost-effectiveness.

The program went live Jan 1 2008 and will continue indefinitely.

The Businessmakers Entrepreneurial Radio Show - Entrepreneur stories and interviewsThe Businessmakers Entrepreneurial Radio Show - Entrepreneur stories and interviews

Listen to The Businessmakers Entrepreneurial Radio Show - Entrepreneur stories and interviews featuring Jeremy Konko, VP qtags.

Konko discusses “mobility marketing,” a new and innovative way for advertisers and businesses to access prospects—and the next logical step for those who use their cell phones for text messaging and text search. Konko may have hit upon the next generation of advertising formats by reaching consumers through their cell phones.

qtags Elevator Pitch featured on Business Makers Radio Show

qtags was recently featured at the 5th annual Rice Alliance Information Technology and Web 2.0 Venture Forum. During this event Rice invited 30 to 40 emerging IT companies give an “elevator pitch” to local venture capitalists who are considering investing. So what is an elevator pitch anyway?

An elevator pitch is a brief overview of a business, product, service or project. It’s called an elevator pitch because it can be delivered in the span of an elevator ride. It sounds simple but a good elevator pitch is short, impactful and leaves the listener with a solid idea of what your idea is about.

During the event the ten ten most promising Information Technology and Web 2.0 companies was announced. These companies were chosen based on the commercial potential of the companies proprietary technology. 

qtags was chosen as one of the top ten most promising. Listen to the qtags elevator pitch.

As one of the largest information technology venture forums in North America the Forum allowed these to showcase their new ventures in front of an audience of 400-500 investors and venture capitalists.

The event was discussed recently on The Business Makers radio show.

qtags text for print publications announced

At this week's SNA Classified Advertising Manager's Conference in Tampa, FL, qtags is launching a new text-messaging service, specifically designed for print publications. 

This service allows publications to offer cost-effective text-messaging to both space and classified advertisers.  Rates are based on circulation and publication frequency. 

qtags shows how to use .mobi

Domain Name Wire attended the 5th Annual Rice Alliance IT and Web 2.0 forum and writes -

qtags is a service that lets you text a phrase to a text number and get information back. For example, you might see a sign at a store that’s hiring and text ‘jobs’ to a 5 digit number. You’d then get a message back with more information as well as a bookmark in your qtags account so you can follow up about the job.

qtags’ elevator pitch at the conference was excellent and included a good use of the .mobi domain. The presenter asked the audience to text ‘rice’ to 78247. Within seconds, the audience received a text message back with a link to the company’s details. The link was to m.qtags.mobi/rice.  This is a .mobi site that includes the company’s pitch to investors:

I thought this was clever and a good use of .mobi.

qtags' clients are integrating .mobi's into text-messaging programs more frequently.  As an increasing number of mobile phones are web-capable, it is a way to connect to more information, easily and quickly. Other examples of 'good uses' of .mobi include a program by Archstone Clinton in Manhattan (text 'rent' to 78247) and Accenture in campus-recruiting programs in Canada and US (text 'contribute' to 78247).