It's Baton Rouge: Out to Lunch

Although we all agree that education is the key to success in so many areas of life, getting an education isn't as straightforward and easy as we'd like. That's why whay Stephanie Riegel's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Baton Rouge do what they do. Nancy Cadwallader is owner of Collegiate Advisory Placement Service, an independent educational consulting firm that helps families find the be...

Crime is one of the biggest problems facing Baton Rouge at the moment. In 2017, the city had one of the highest murder rates on a per capita basis in the country. It s a problem that s holding the community back, and affecting economic development. But efforts are under way to address the crime and the systemic problems that are causing it, especially in the most impoverished areas of our communit...

Seafood is something we do well here in south Louisiana. We re fortunate to be blessed with an abundance of mollusks, crustaceans and fin fish that not only keep our local population well fed but have enabled Louisiana cooks and chefs to be recognized around the world for their culinary exploits. So you might think there s not much room for improvement. But you would be wrong. Stephanie s guests o...

The rising cost of health care is one of the biggest challenges facing Americans today. Between 1996 and 2015, health care spending in the United States rose over a TRILLION dollars. And there is no end to this trend in sight. Locally, businesses and patients certainly feel the pressure. Sso do insurers and providers who are trying to innovate and find ways to keep costs down while remaining compe...

Conscious capitalism has become a popular buzzword around the country. It refers to companies and businesspeople who are about more than making money they re about making a difference. Like Dave Treppendahl, right here in Baton Rouge. Dave is a real estate broker in the Baton Rouge area with NAI Latter and Blum and has more than three decades experience in the commercial real estate sector. But ov...

Here in Baton Rouge we really think of ourselves as a big small town, where everybody knows everybody else. And Baton Rouge circles do tend to overlap, particualry in business. But there are so many small businesses out there you've likely never heard of doing really cool things and making their mark - literally - on the local economy and the world stage. Guy Barone is President and CEO of Xenetec...

In just 10 years, America will cross an important demographic threshold: all of the country's Baby Boomers will be 65 or older. This will expand the size of the nation's elderly population so that 1 in every 5 adults will be retirement age. What are we doing to prepare for this? And, who's looking ahead to the not-so-distant future to prepare us for the changes this shift will bring to our institu...

Living in the shadows of New Orleans, one of the great tourist destinations of the country, if not the world, Baton Rouge isn't typically thought of as a hot spot for the leisure traveler. But that has started to change in recent years, as the city and industry associations have begun marketing the Baton Rouge more aggressively as a place not to only to come do business at the state capitol or wat...

With the technology explosion that seemingly never ends, there's never been a more exciting time to be an inventor, an innovator or a creator. But the same tech that brings an inventor's ideas to life also open us up to complications, and challenges that make us vulnerable to threats from competitors who may want steal our great ideas. And that's why we have Intellectual Property laws. Michael Lea...

"One man's trash is another man's treasure" is not just a cliche, it's a fortunate dynamic for those whose livelihoods and missions are built around selling second-hand stuff. Used merchandise was once pretty much limited to hipsters in funky neighborhoods. Today, it's gone mainstream, particularly among younger millennials and I-Gen-ers, who have turned a cottage industry into a major retail sect...

Paul Charbonnet is the owner of Atmosphere Cinema. Atmosphere Cinema is not a movie theater, it's a Baton Rouge company that shoots aerial video and photography, primarily from its fleet of drones. Paul founded the company in 2014. Atmosphere Cinema shoots video for the movie industry. Car chases, sweeping shots of landscapes, and other scenes that would normally take a huge crew, a huge amount of...

Padma Vatsavai is founder and CEO of Vinformatix. Vinformatix is a software development company that specializes in designing and maintaining web-based applications, websites, and portals for public and private sector clients. Vinformatix designed the web-based system that 90,000 victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas used in 2017 to apply for disaster aid. The firm also designed two web-based porta...

Just five years ago, Louisiana led the nation as the number one site to make movies, outpacing even California and New York. We attained this lofty position as a result of a generous program of state tax incentives , which cost the state treasury real dollars. But what did we gain in the process? By any measure, a lot of economic ripple activity and brand recognition, until the legislature put a s...

Being a mid-size city in the Deep South - known as a "tertiary market" in the business world - Baton Rouge is not known for being an artistic hub. But the Capital City has a wealth of artistic and musical talent that is often overlooked and under appreciated. It's not hard to find, it's just that the city cares more about the fortunes of its beloved LSU Tigers than its singers, songwriters, dancer...

Dr. David Carmouche is President of the Ochsner Health Network, the accountable care network of the massive Ochsner Health System - the largest nonprofit, academic healthcare system in Louisiana. It boasts 40 owned, managed and affiliated hospitals and specialty hospitals, more than 100 health centers and urgent care centers, nearly 25,000 employees and more than 4,500 physicians. Dr. Carmouche is...

There are countless studies of equality in the workplace that demonstrate how unequally men and women are treated, in everything from opportunity to income. In entrepreneurship, we create our own playing field. In small women-owned businesses, women are the boss and they make a point of treating of other women how they would like to be treated. Monique Scott Spaulding is owner of Jani King of Bato...

On this edition of Out to Lunch, Stephanie's guests can make you look like a million bucks and feel like a million bucks. Blair Couatre, with her husband Dustin Clouatre, owns a business called Mera Salon Suite, a co-working space for aesthetic entrepreneurs. Mera rents out space in its state-of-the-art salon on a weekly basis to beauty and wellness professionals, who want to go out on their own b...

In 2011, Mary Patricia Wray was a young law student at Loyola University Law School in New Orleans. Just three short years later, she found herself serving as the communications director for a longshot candidate in the Governor s Race, a democratic state Representative from Amite named John Bel Edwards. You know what happened next Edwards made the runoff and went on to beat his Republican challeng...

Stafford Wood is one of the most talented women in Baton Rouge, and the founder and owner of Covalent Logic, a full service integrated communications firm that specializes in branding, corporate communications, graphic design, web design, public relations and crisis communications. Covalent s clients, past and present, include hospitals, banks, state agencies, churches and nonprofit organizations....

We talk a lot about the importance of getting in shape especially at the beginning of a new year or before hitting the beach but do you know what it really means to be in shape And how, exactly, do we get healthy It s a question local businesses and entrepreneurs are helping their clients better understand using new technologies, and new approaches to fitness. Tiffany Stewart is a clinical psychol...

Thirty years ago, a young, high energy entrepreneur left his private sector job to create the Louisiana Business and Technology Center on the LSU campus, a business incubator for small startups. In the three decades since, the LBTC has helped launch hundreds of businesses and has spawned the creation of the much larger LSU Innovation Park, a 13 year old facility on its own south campus dedicated t...

Andrea Leyerle is a Baton Rouge based entrepreneur who has created an online and retail nutraceutical business, Andi Lynn s Pure and Custom Formulary. Andrea started the company in 2010 in her kitchen, where she began making her own version of elderberry syrup, known for its cold and flu fighting properties. In the years since, Andi Lynn s Pure and Custom Formulary has expanded into a variety of h...

We ve all heard about the Amazon Effect and how ecommerce is seriously disrupting the retail world. Savvy entrepreneurs are figuring out how to carve a niche for themselves, whether by offering unqiue products or that special personal touch you can t get online, creating a unique shopping experience , or, by creating a whole new business model. Mark Peirce is owner of The Royal Standard, a gifts,...

Workplace accidents cost American companies some 60 billion every year. But, unlike the trajectory of most workplace costs, accident expenses are actually going down. The reason is better training and more proactive safety measures that come from the public and private sectors. Kathy Trahan is president and CEO of the Alliance Safety Council, a 60 year old agency that trains workers to meet federa...

Seven out of 10 American households own a pet, generally a dog or cat. This has created a huge pet care industry and unlimited opportunity for creative, animal loving entrepreneurs. It has also led to an unfortunate side effect little loved animals, particularly cats, wandering our streets. Angela Schifani is Development Director of Cat Haven, a non profit cat rescue organization that was founded...