10+ can't-miss Houston business and innovation events in September

Where to be

Here's your one-stop shop for innovation events in Houston this month. Photo via Getty Images

This month, Houstonians have yet another good batch of in-person and online innovation events, including the inaugural InnovationMap Awards, and you and your tech network need to know about them.

Here's a roundup of virtual events not to miss this month — like demo days, workshops, conventions, and more.

Note: This post might be updated to add more events.

September 8 — The InnovationMap Awards presented by Techwave

Celebrate Houston innovation's movers and shakers at this inaugural event. Find out who of the 28 finalists — listed here — will take home a win and vote IN REAL TIME on this year's people's choice winner.

The event is on Wednesday, September 8, at 5:30 pm. It's free and happening online. Click here to register.

September 9 — Illuminate Houston: An Innovation Conversation

Illuminate Houston, presented by the Greater Houston Partnership, is an event series highlighting business leaders who challenge the way we think about the future. Illuminate Houston features dynamic formats where speakers and attendees discuss trends, technologies and issues that define how we do business. Following the keynote presentation by Caleb Deerinwater, Vice President – Fiber Sales & Distribution at AT&T, the audience will participate in an interactive fishbowl discussion. A fishbowl is a format fosters group participation in conversation and lets the content emerge from the group's comments and questions.

The event is on Thursday, September 9, at noon. It's free to members ($25 for non-members) and happening online. Click here to register.

September 11 — BioVentures Pitch Day

BioVentures is Enventure's 10-week accelerator program that supports budding entrepreneurs as they turn their ideas into a life science startup. This year, the group has four startups who will pitch their technology. Each team will be giving a 10-minute pitch followed by 20 minutes of Q&A. This event will be virtual through Zoom.

The event is on Saturday, September 11, at 1 pm. It's free and happening online. Click here to register.

September 15 — Building Better Teams by Fostering Equity in the Workplace

As an early-stage entrepreneur, you want to attract the most exceptional talent who will help your company grow. Developing and implementing an effective DEI strategy can be essential to your efforts to secure the very best people to help maintain your competitive advantage. Join this panel from JLABS featuring Fiona Mack, regional head of JLABS @ TMC.

The event is on Wednesday, September 15, at noon. It's free and happening online. Click here to register.

September 16 — The State of Space

The Greater Houston Partnership is hosting its second annual State of Space event with featured speaker Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, and panelists Steve Altemus, President and CEO, Intuitive Machines LLC and Tim Kopra, Vice President of Robotics and Space, MDA Ltd.

The event is on Thursday, September 16, at 10:30 am at Marriott Marquis (1777 Walker St.). It's $75 for members and $150 for non-members. Click here to register.

September 16 — Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator Demo Day

The Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator is hosting its inaugural demo day celebrating its inaugural class. Register to hear from 12 startups and participate in audience Q&A. Prior to pitches, stroll through our virtual showcase to learn more about the startups and network or chat with your fellow attendees.

The event is on Thursday, September 16, at 1 pm. It's free and happening online. Click here to register.

September 16 — Rice Data Science Career Mixer

The Rice Data Science Career Mixer is an excellent opportunity for companies to network with the brightest students at Rice University and discuss potential career opportunities in computational and data science fields.

The event is on Thursday, September 16, at 5 pm. It's free and happening online. Click here to register.

September 18 — Houston Hackathon 2021

To celebrate the National Civic Day of Hacking, Impact Hub Houston invites all people who want to make a difference in our region to join them at the annual Houston Hackathon. This is a "civic" hackathon, focused on ideating, designing, and developing both policy-based and tech solutions to some of Houston's greatest challenges. Project stakeholders will be there from the city, local organizations, and Houston's impact community.

The event is on Saturday, September 18, at 11 am to 3 pm. It's free and happening online. Click here to register.

September 21 — Email Marketing: A How To

Join The Cannon's HubSpot for Startups partner for a fast-paced session covering the key elements of email marketing. In this workshop, we'll go over HubSpot's playbook for:

Creating a winning email marketing strategy
Generating traffic to your website and converting traffic into leads
Leveraging automation to nurture leads
Email marketing best practices and common mistakes to avoid

The event is on Tuesday, September 21, at 1 pm. It's free and happening online. Click here to register.

September 22 — Are You Ready to Fundraise?

Raising money for your new venture doesn't have to be a mystery. When it comes to fundraising, there are specific things to keep in mind. Catch The Cannon's next webinar with Founder's Compass.

Understand the timing of the process
Understand your target audience (investors) and the value proposition that will appeal to them
Understand the obligations, risks, and consequences (on both sides)

The event is on Wednesday, September 22, at 10 am. It's free and happening online. Click here to register.

September 29 — Equity in Green Jobs

The projected growth of the climatetech industry and its ability to train and employ people means that there is abundant potential to create wealth and jobs, especially for low-income communities and communities of color. Greentown Labs invites you to hear from experts who will share how we can build toward a resilient, low-carbon future while simultaneously and rapidly expanding opportunities for women and people of color to economically benefit from and help drive the climatetech revolution.

The conversation will cover:

The current state of Houston's quickly evolving energy landscape
Skills applicable to the energy transition
Examples of comprehensive climatetech workforce development programs
Incorporating equity into green jobs

The event is on Wednesday, September 29, at 4 pm. It's free and happening online. Click here to register.

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Rice University lands $18M to revolutionize lymphatic disease detection

fresh funding

An arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $18 million to scientists at Rice University for research that has the potential to revolutionize how lymphatic diseases are detected and help increase survivability.

The lymphatic system is the network of vessels all over the body that help eliminate waste, absorb fat and maintain fluid balance. Diseases in this system are often difficult to detect early due to the small size of the vessels and the invasiveness of biopsy testing. Though survival rates of lymph disease have skyrocketed in the United States over the last five years, it still claims around 200,000 people in the country annually.

Early detection of complex lymphatic anomalies (CLAs) and lymphedema is essential in increasing successful treatment rates. That’s where Rice University’s SynthX Center, directed by Han Xiao and Lei Li, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, comes in.

Aided by researchers from Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the center is pioneering two technologies: the Visual Imaging System for Tracing and Analyzing Lymphatics with Photoacoustics (VISTA-LYMPH) and Digital Plasmonic Nanobubble Detection for Protein (DIAMOND-P).

Simply put, VISTA-LYMPH uses photoacoustic tomography (PAT), a combination of light and sound, to more accurately map the tiny vessels of the lymphatic system. The process is more effective than diagnostic tools that use only light or sound, independent of one another. The research award is through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics and pHenotyping Technologies (LIGHT) program, part of the U.S. HHS, which saw the potential of VISTA-LYMPH in animal tests that produced finely detailed diagnostic maps.

“Thanks to ARPA-H’s award, we will build the most advanced PAT system to image the body’s lymphatic network with unprecedented resolution and speed, enabling earlier and more accurate diagnosis,” Li said in a news release.

Meanwhile, DIAMOND-P could replace the older, less exact immunoassay. It uses laser-heated vapors of plasmonic nanoparticles to detect viruses without having to separate or amplify, and at room temperature, greatly simplifying the process. This is an important part of greater diagnosis because even with VISTA-LYMPH’s greater imaging accuracy, many lymphatic diseases still do not appear. Detecting biological markers is still necessary.

According to Rice, the efforts will help address lymphatic disorders, including Gorham-Stout disease, kaposiform lymphangiomatosis and generalized lymphatic anomaly. They also could help manage conditions associated with lymphatic dysfunction, including cancer metastasis, cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration.

“By validating VISTA-LYMPH and DIAMOND-P in both preclinical and clinical settings, the team aims to establish a comprehensive diagnostic pipeline for lymphatic diseases and potentially beyond,” Xiao added in the release.

The ARPA-H award funds the project for up to five years.

Houston doctor wins NIH grant to test virtual reality for ICU delirium

Virtual healing

Think of it like a reverse version of The Matrix. A person wakes up in a hospital bed and gets plugged into a virtual reality game world in order to heal.

While it may sound far-fetched, Dr. Hina Faisal, a Houston Methodist critical care specialist in the Department of Surgery, was recently awarded a $242,000 grant from the National Institute of Health to test the effects of VR games on patients coming out of major surgery in the intensive care unit (ICU).

The five-year study will focus on older patients using mental stimulation techniques to reduce incidences of delirium. The award comes courtesy of the National Institute on Aging K76 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging.

“As the population of older adults continues to grow, the need for effective, scalable interventions to prevent postoperative complications like delirium is more important than ever,” Faisal said in a news release.

ICU delirium is a serious condition that can lead to major complications and even death. Roughly 87 percent of patients who undergo major surgery involving intubation will experience some form of delirium coming out of anesthesia. Causes can range from infection to drug reactions. While many cases are mild, prolonged ICU delirium may prevent a patient from following medical advice or even cause them to hurt themselves.

Using VR games to treat delirium is a rapidly emerging and exciting branch of medicine. Studies show that VR games can help promote mental activity, memory and cognitive function. However, the full benefits are currently unknown as studies have been hampered by small patient populations.

Faisal believes that half of all ICU delirium cases are preventable through VR treatment. Currently, a general lack of knowledge and resources has been holding back the advancement of the treatment.

Hopefully, the work of Faisal in one of the busiest medical cities in the world can alleviate that problem as she spends the next half-decade plugging patients into games to aid in their healing.

New accelerator joins the Ion and more Houston innovation news to know

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Editor's note: The Houston innovation scene is buzzing with big news this month, from a new accelerator joining the fold at the Ion to pre-IPO funding and national expansion plans. Below are the five most-read InnovationMap stories from Feb. 1-15, 2026:

New accelerator for AI startups to launch at Houston's Ion this spring

The new AI Native Dual-Use Sports, Health & Wellness Accelerator is expected to launch in March. Photo courtesy of the Ion

The Collectiv Foundation and Rice University have established a sports, health and wellness startup accelerator at the Ion District’s Collectiv, a sports-focused venture capital platform. The AI Native Dual-Use Sports, Health & Wellness Accelerator is scheduled to formally launch in March. Continue reading.

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From recurring monthly favorites to the return of annual celebrations and summits, here's what not to miss in February. Photo courtesy the Ion.

February may be a short month, but its event calendar isn’t. From recurring monthly favorites to the return of annual celebrations and summits, here are the Houston business and innovation events not to miss — and how to register. Continue reading.

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