The Last Word

The Last Word: The American Pecan Promotion Board’s Alexander Ott on this Pecan Pizza Pie

Pecans aren't just for the pecan pie this Thanksgiving, according to—who else?—the American Pecan Promotion Board. Based in Fort Worth, the board was founded last year and operates under the oversight of the USDA. 
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The Last Word: Annemarie De La Vega on Gender Equity in CRE
De La Vega was one of the voices at BisNow's annual Women Leading Real Estate event last week The Westin Dallas Downtown.  With a goal of promoting diversity and spotlighting female leaders in commercial real estate, the event featured a panel discussion led by CLA principal Dee Estep on leadership strategies and how to inspire more women to join the industry.
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The Last Word: Craig Davis of VisitDallas on Voters Approving New Convention Center with I-30 Deck Park
In the November 8 election, Dallas voters approved a plan to build a new $1.2 billion Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center that will include a deck park over I-30, connecting the complex with The Cedars neighborhood south of downtown. Voters also approved $300 million for renovations and repairs to the Cotton Bowl and several iconic buildings across Fair Park. 
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The Last Word: McLaren’s Nicolas Brown on Opening the Supercar Company’s HQ in Coppell
Back in August, we showed you a sneak peek inside McLaren's new 31,000-square-foot Americas HQ in Coppell, just northwest of Dallas. Over the weekend, the HQ had its official opening, and dozens of McLaren owners from throughout the region showed up to show off their own wheels—and lust after the rides on display in the HQ. One car that attracted more than one desirous glance was a $3 million Speedtail.
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The Last Word: UTA’s Maria Konsta-Gdoutos on Getting a $1.5M NSF Grant to Turn Concrete Into a Clean Source of Energy

Konsta-Gdoutos is exploring a way to turn one of the world's biggest polluters—concrete, which accounts for at least 8% of global energy-related CO2 emissions—into a source of clean, renewable energy. “We will pioneer TE-CO2NCRETE, a thermoelectric carbon-neutral concrete, that will exhibit a high carbon dioxide uptake potential and storage capacity,” Konsta-Gdoutos said in a statement. “Engineering the nanostructure of concrete also will allow the material to capture thermal energy from the surroundings and convert it into usable electrical energy, leading to the development of a novel technology for renewable electricity and higher efficiency power source.”
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The Last Word: Mike Rufail on Friday’s $1M Esports Win by The Dallas Fuel
by | Nov 7, 2022
On Friday night, The Dallas Fuel defeated the two-time world champions San Francisco Shock to become the 2022 Overwatch League Champions, winning the best-of-seven series 4-3. The finale  played out live onstage in front of thousands of fans at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, and was streamed on YouTube for a live audience of an estimated 325,000-plus concurrent viewers.
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The Last Word: UNT’s Calvin Henard on Engineering a Bacteria that ‘Eats’ Greenhouse Gases
In his lab at the BioDiscovery Institute, Henard engineers methanotrophic bacteria to convert methane gas into bioplastics, biofuels, and other products. While they're at it, the methanotrophs also consume carbon dioxide, another key ingredient causing climate change. With a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation and the Agile BioFoundry, a national labs consortium, Henard has begun a three-year study into the beneficial bacteria, which can lead to a more sustainable way to produce fuels, plastics, and chemicals than by using petroleum.
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The Last Word: Committee Chairman Bernard Poussot on BioLabs and Others Winning 2022 Prix Galien Awards

The Prix Galien USA Committee honored excellence and innovation in life sciences during the Prix Galien USA Forum and 16th annual Prix Galien Awards Gala last week at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. One big winner was BioLabs, which has a 37,000-SF coworking and shared wet lab space at the Biotech+ Hub at Pegasus Park in Dallas, along with other locations across the U.S. and in France and Germany.
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The Last Word: UT Dallas’ Dr. Jung-Mo Ahn on Creating a New Cancer-Fighting Molecule
Dr. Ahn is working on something very small that may have a profound, lifesaving impact on something hugely dangerous. In collaboration with UTSW Medical Center professor Dr. Ganesh Raj and UTHSC San Antonio's Ratna Vadlamudi, Ahn has created a molecule that can kill an array of cancers, including an aggressive form of breast cancer. The goal of the molecules is to prevent molecular “handshakes” between proteins that can cause out-of-control cell growth that spreads cancer further.
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The Last Word: ENO8’s Jeff Francis on How Rushing Doesn’t Always Win the Software Startup Race
DFW-based Francis says he helps tech founders launch their digital products "with clarity and confidence while increasing success raising capital and reducing risk in execution."  He's been putting some interesting advice up on LinkedIn. Last week he shared this: "I have two kids, and a phrase you will NEVER hear me say to them is, 'Second place is first loser.'"
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THE LAST WORD on Dallas Innovates. Find "who said what" in our collection of quotes on Dallas-Fort Worth Innovation.
Every Last Word: Quotes About All Things North Texas
Read “who said what” in our roundup of quotes about all things North Texas, including ENO8's Jeff Francis; MyndVR's Chris Brickler and Ted Werth; Axxess' John Olajide; the Urban Land Institute's Ron Pressman; Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson; the Mavs Foundation's Katie Edwards; UT Arlington's Yi Hong; HomeUSA.com's Ben Caballero; ParkHub's George Baker Sr.; and more.
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The Last Word: Axxess’ John Olajide on Earning ACHC Certification

Dallas-based Axxess empowers healthcare in the home with a suite of enterprise software solutions that help companies streamline their operations and grow their organizations. And now it's doing that with a new status. Writing on LinkedIn last week, Olajide announced that Axxess' software has earned product certification from the Accredited Commission for Health Care with "zero deficiencies." Olajide noted that the zero deficiencies status "is an impressive accomplishment for organizations in the care at home industry."
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The Last Word: CEO Ron Pressman on the Urban Land Institute’s Conference in Dallas This Week
by | Oct 25, 2022
Pressman, the former CEO of institutional financial services at TIAA, was appointed global CEO of the Urban Land Institute only two weeks ago. But he's up and running at the ULI's Fall 2022 Meeting in Downtown Dallas this week, a four-day conference that began Monday at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The ULI is the world's oldest and largest network of cross-disciplinary real estate and land use experts, and is welcoming over 5,000 attendees to this week's conference, which is packed with daily sessions and speakers—and as Pressman told the Dallas Business Journal, dozens of tours of all things CRE in Dallas.
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The Last Word: Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson on the Southern Gateway Deck Park in Oak Cliff
by | Oct 24, 2022
Southern Gateway Park, a planned $172 million, five-acre deck park over I-35 by the Dallas Zoo—just reached a big milestone. TxDOT has completed the foundation deck for Phase 1 of the deck park (seen in the right half of the image above). The park will literally and figuratively reconnect the Oak Cliff neighborhood that was divided by I-35 in the 1950s. The park promises to be an engineering marvel with five acres of wooded slopes, water features, rocky escarpments, a restaurant/retail complex hidden under a hilltop, and one of the most awesome kids' playgrounds in North Texas. But its greatest achievement may be to make Oak Cliff whole again—and to bring all of Dallas together.
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Mavericks
The Last Word: Mavs Foundation’s Katie Edwards on Partnering with TIAA for ‘Dunks for Equity’
The next time you see Luka Doncic slam home a dunk at a Dallas Mavericks game, he'll be doing more than helping his team win in the new NBA season. He'll also be scoring $50 to help create opportunities for young adults across Dallas-Fort Worth. TIAA and the Mavericks are teaming up on Dunks for Equity, a program supporting educational and professional equity for all. 
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