New Orleans Entrepreneur Week – “Start It Up”

What: The Idea Village’s Third Annual New Orleans Entrepreneur Week When: March 19-25

Heeding President Obama’s call to ‘Startup America,’ the nation’s greatest entrepreneurial minds will gather in New Orleans for the 3rd annual New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW), March 19-25, 2011. The event, unveiled today, will serve as a manifestation of a movement that is sweeping the globe.

Driven by the entrepreneurial momentum that has fueled the city’s rebirth, NOEW, an initiative of The Idea Village, will feature a unique program of world-class activities including over 45 business workshops, investment pitches, networking events, keynote speeches and interactive discussion sessions. This high-impact week of service, networking and collaboration redefines New Orleans as a laboratory of innovation and a model for national best practices by connecting students, entrepreneurs and thought leaders.

“I am thrilled about the potential of the New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. The New Orleans community has come together to sustain a movement to support and grow entrepreneurial talent,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Honorary Chair of NOEW 2011. “NOEW illustrates that New Orleans is a model city for innovation and entrepreneurship. With smart investments in innovation and partnerships like the one we have with The Idea Village, we can set the course for growth and renewal in America.”

Joining The Idea Village as Premier Partners for NOEW are Penny & Jim Coulter, Downtown Development District of New Orleans, Economic Development Administration, Goldman Sachs, Google, Greater New Orleans Foundation, HP, Jones Walker, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, Louisiana Recovery Authority, Kevin Clifford Family, NakedPizza, and Tulane University.

“NOEW is a physical manifestation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that has evolved over the last 10 years in New Orleans,” said Tim Williamson, co-founder and CEO of The Idea Village. “During this week, New Orleans will engage a global community of change makers to provide direct resources to the local entrepreneurial community and in doing so position New Orleans at the forefront of what is becoming a national movement.”

The idea behind NOEW was hatched in 2006 when ambitious MBA students seized the opportunity to spend their spring break in New Orleans working with early-stage, high-growth entrepreneurs. In 2009, led by investment from the Economic Development Administration, The Idea Village decided to scale the impact for the community by engaging national and local corporations, universities, investors, and individuals to spend a week in New Orleans providing direct support to local entrepreneurs surrounded by the City’s unique cultural assets in food, music and vanguard entrepreneur leaders. NOEW 2010 brought over 150 of the nation’s top MBA students and corporate volunteers together with 329 local entrepreneurs to provide over 9,121 hours of direct service to entrepreneurs at 37 events throughout downtown New Orleans.

“What initially started as a philanthropic partnership in the wake of Katrina has evolved into a more strategic initiative for the company,” says Tara Canobbio of Google’s Talent and Outreach Programs, K-12. “We have found it invaluable to be surrounded by so many driven people that share the same passion for entrepreneurship and New Orleans and it’s amazing to see the tangible impact that energy is having on the city.”

“The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative is honored to partner with Mayor Landrieu and The Idea Village to unlock the growth and job-creation potential of New Orleans’ small business owners. We are pleased to partner with NOEW to provide local entrepreneurs access business skills, capital, mentors and networks,” said Dina Habib Powell, President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation.

Google and Goldman Sachs, along with other global corporations such as Cisco will join a network of professional service providers to host public educational sessions for the local entrepreneurial community on an array of topics critical to start ups and entrepreneurs including, alternative and traditional financing, communications and social media strategy, franchising, and legal issues. There are 1,000 slots available to local entrepreneurs on a first come – first serve basis. For more information on all the events, please visit www.noew.org.

“It is inspiring to interact with the kind of talent that The Idea Village assembles together for NOEW. Not only are Cisco employees able to support local entrepreneurs, but they walk away having learned something too,” said Luke Stewart of Cisco.

NOEW 2011 will feature MBA IDEAcorps teams from Berkeley, Cornell, University of Chicago Booth, Stanford, Northwestern Kellogg, Tulane and Loyola (New Orleans). Each student team will work closely with entrepreneurs Bideo, The Durationator Company, NOLA Brewing Company, Rare Cuts, Rebirth Financial, Spa Workshop and SensPac, from The Idea Village’s 2011 Entrepreneur Challenge (IVEC) class, to provide strategic consulting on a catalytic business challenge.

Additionally, NOEW 2011 offers a world-class investment pitch opportunity called IDEApitch led by Jim Coulter, founding partner of TPG Capital. IDEApitch will offer 5 local entrepreneurs the opportunity to present their ventures to leading investors from TPG, Bain Venture Capital, Redpoint, Prism, IBM Ventures, and American Funds

“This is a special and important moment for the city of New Orleans,” said Jim Coulter, “The Coulter Challenge IDEApitch specifically identifies five of Louisiana’s most scalable ventures and gives them the opportunity to pitch their plans to some of the world’s leading growth capital firms.”

2011 IDEApitch entrepreneurs include Federated Sample, Naked Pizza, Spa Workshop, Mini Vax and NOvate Medical Technologies, LLC.

Additionally, NOEW will feature a $50,000 ‘Water Challenge’ to promote innovative water management solutions through entrepreneurship. Interested entrepreneurs can through midnight CST on February, 21, 2011 at http://www.ideavillage.org/waterchallenge.

NOEW 2011 will offer interactive roundtable discussions on seeding and growing entrepreneur ecosystems led by national luminaries such as Jim Coulter, Senator Mary Landrieu D-La, James Carville, Mary Matalin, Amy Cosper, Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, and leading business entities such as McKinsey & Company, Bain Venture Capital and IBM.

Featured Speakers and Panelists for NOEW 2011:

* Jim Coulter, Founding Partner, TPG Capital
* John Turner, President , Whitney Bank
* Dr. Patti Greene, President’s Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship, Babson College
* Rick Aubry, Founder, New Foundry Ventures/Associate Provost, Tulane University
* Kris Licht and Eric Harmon, Partners, McKinsey & Co.
* Amy Cosper, Editor in Chief, Entrepreneur Magazine
* Jeff Schwartz, Managing Director, Bain Capital
* Kevin Clifford, President and CEO, American Funds
* Wendy Lung, Partner, IBM Venture Capital
* Jeff Brody, Founding Partner, Redpoint Ventures
* Jim Counihan, Partner, Prism Venture Works
* Gene Zelazny, Director of Visual Communications, McKinsey & Co.
* Jennifer Aaker, General Atlantic Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business
* Chris Gergen , Executive Director, Bull City Forward, Life Entrepreneurs
* Jessica Jackley, Founder, Kiva and Profounder
* Robbie Vitrano, Naked Pizza
* David Waggonner, FAIA, Waggoner & Ball Architects
* Mark Davis, Director, Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy

For more information, including a full schedule of events, please visit www.NOEW.org.
For a full list of NOEW 2011 sponsors, please visit http://noew.org/about_us/sponsors.

About the Idea Village
The Idea Village was founded in 2000 as an independent 501(c) (3) non-profit organization with a mission to identify, support and retain entrepreneurial talent in New Orleans by providing business resources to high-impact ventures. To date, The Idea Village has supported over 590 local entrepreneurs by engaging 890 professionals and allocating over 56,000 consulting hours and $2.5 million in capital. This portfolio generates over $87 million in annual revenue and has created 1,000 jobs for the community.

Cascade Celebrates 10 Years

In 2001, I got a lot of advice about opening Cascade Communications and I was fully prepared for the hard work, determination, frustration, patience and planning it would require. However, the one thing no one told me about going into business was that time will fly!

Like every business there are the ups and downs, but even despite the economy, things feel different for us. It's almost as if we're entering a new phase and what it has in store none of us really know, but...it kind of feels like a beginning.

Over the last 10 years, we've done some pretty cool stuff and helped raise the profiles and sales of many small business brands. We've even run celebrity red carpet events and managed more than 60 local media for one of the biggest political party campaigns embracing the next generation of voters. We've seen small companies grow into million dollar businesses in just a few years or quadruple their current business in 18 months. It's crazy and exciting. While it can be frustrating to never get your client on the phone, we also know that they are busy growing and loving it.

And, we have had those that didn't fare so well. It happens. One's batting average can't always be .500 and the ones we haven't won for have mostly been an issue of bad timing. That's the trick. While we understand what media is looking for sometimes they just aren't ready for us, or someone else beat us to the punch. We hate that. I hate that. But, we can honestly say we've had more wins than not and met some incredible people along the way.

As I reflect back on the last 10 years, I know that I, personally, have learned a lot about myself and what I want my business to be. Is it what it started out to be? Are my goals for it the same? Where are we headed now? Like all business owners, these are the questions we should ask ourselves annually and where we need help, we ask for it - much like our clients have done.

Everyone says 10 years is a milestone, and they're right, for sure, but our modesty keeps us from getting too wrapped up in it all. This year, I want that to change. There are so many cool opportunities with social media and using it to help grow our client's business, it's fun, it's different and it's here to stay. The beauty is that one mom and pop in small town Kansas has the chance to be more than local. They can become international, and I just love that idea.

So while we're taking our heads out of the sand and finally taking a bow (well just for a minute), we're also looking forward to working with amazing small businesses. I will continue teaching PR to small businesses around the area at SCORE Chicago. We'll launch our new website soon (pardon the dust) and starting some new things of our own to benefit clients. It's going to be....exciting. Listen, when you've been through two economic down times while in business, you learn to float through it and keep the faith; to see the exciting possibilities and to, well, get excited.

This is our hope for all of you on our Anniversary - get excited! Opportunities abound. Small businesses and entrepreneurs are reaching out to help one another and that's what I love about what we do so much.

Cheers!