By Edmond Ortiz San Antonians will be speaking up and representing their communities on key issues from March 9 to March 18 at the 2018 South by Southwest, the annual Austin festival that celebrates convergence of technology, music and cinema. Individuals from San Antonio nonprofits, businesses and academia are scheduled to talk about topics including diversity, health care, community organization, empowering women, minority communities, aging and entrepreneurship.

After dozens of local leaders donated time and ideas to launch ConnectHome and bring high-speed Internet to low-income families, San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor laid out the long odds and the tall challenge ahead. A child born in a poor census tract today "has less than a 1-in-20 chance of escaping poverty," Taylor told the group.

Twenty-one new shops are popping up downtown along a stretch of Houston and Travis streets just in time for the holiday shopping season. The downtown pop up shops are part of the OPEN program, and available to the public from noon-9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays from Dec. 2-30.

REPLAY VIDEO: NOWCastSA webcast Christie St. Martin's lecture for the Geekdom Master Series on Thursday, Jan. 23. St. Martin spoke about social media and community management for startups.

REPLAY VIDEO: 3 Day Startup (3DS) is an entrepreneurship education program designed for university students, techies and business people with an emphasis on learning by doing. The idea is simple: start a tech company over the course of three days.

3 Day Startup (3DS) is an entrepreneurship education program designed for university students, techies and business people with an emphasis on learning by doing. The idea is simple: start tech companies over the course of three days.