Hill Country Students to Pitch at Historic Odeon Theater

The Hill Country Venture Fest is set to host its student pitch night on October 1, 2026, at the historic Odeon Theater in Mason, Texas, as detailed on hillcountryventurefest.com. Named the 2025 Texas Venture Fest of the Year by the Texas Venture Alliance, this free event invites rural Hill Country students to pitch real business ideas to real judges in front of a supportive community. The choice of the Odeon Theater is central to the festival's mission: to provide a local stage for rural students, rather than forcing them to travel to a distant city. Built in 1928 on Mason's courthouse square, the Odeon is the longest continuously operating theater in west Texas and sits within a National Historic Register district. It has hosted premieres of films like Old Yeller and Savage Sam, both adapted from books by Mason native Fred Gipson. As organizer Milton Jordan noted, 'A local kid's story once went out to the whole world from that stage. On October 1, our students step onto the same boards and pitch what they want to build.'

The Odeon is a working theater, showing first-run films four nights a week, and underwent a 2019 restoration that added modern seating and sound. Its intimate size ensures that students present to a full, close room, making every seat feel like the front row. The Hill Country Venture Fest is free to attend and enter, co-hosted by thetownie.ai and SimpleEDO.ai, and organized by Katie Milton Jordan since its inception as a single-campus event in Kerrville in 2023. It is part of the statewide Texas Venture Fest network. Reservations open through hillcountryventurefest.com and close on August 28; due to limited seating, spots are first come, first served and may fill quickly.