What to do between Jazz Fest weekends? The Work Week.

Are you headed to Jazz Fest this weekend?  Um… YES! It’s my favorite time of year.

And this year, it’s getting even better with the inaugural Work Week Conference Series.  Using the world-class music festival of New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival as a building block, we’re filling up the entire week with incredible speakers and sessions where you can learn to launch a startup, inspire innovation and succeed in the music business.

Our vision for the Work Week is to build a business conference series complement to the great music experience on the scale of what SXSW has become in Austin.  There are 3 great events that you won’t want to miss.

  • Sync Up – 4/29-30 & 5/6-7 @ NOMA – This is the 4th year of Scott Aiges’ music industry conference.  Swing by the conference in the morning before you headout to the fest and learn from musicians, festival bookers and film producers technologists.  Sync Up has a talent packed lineup including Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, Mystical sitting down for a chat with Wild Wayne and PJ Bloom, music supervisor for Glee. A special addition this year is a screening of the Arcade Fire film ‘The Wilderness Downtown’ with Thomas Gayno from Google produced by Bryan Bailey.
  • Second Line -  5/2-3 @ XLIV at Champions Square – The inaugural Second Line conference launches this year with a focus on disruptiveinnovation, value creation, and sustainable social impact.  Hot of the success of last year’s TEDxNOLA, Gerard Cox is producing the conference and has lined up an impressive roster of talented speakers.  James Carville & Wendell Pierce headline in addition to Scott Gerber, John Besh Matt Candler and Matt Galligan of SimpleGEO.
  • Launch Fest – 5/4-5 @ NOMA – With two half-day sessions, Launch Fest returns for year two, and takesonnew significance this year as the demo day for New Orleans’ only startup accelerator, Launch Pad Ignition. Day one features programming for entrepreneurs and those who are thinking about starting a company.  Day two features investor focused discussions by Brad Feld and a Startup America panel with Scott Case, CEO of Startup America and Sean Greene of the SBA.  Highlight speakers include Leah Culver of Convore, Stephen Dimarco of Compete.com, Brent McCrossen of Audiosocket, Anne Driscoll from Ning and Bob Dorf a Customer Development guru.

Jazz Fest has grown into more than just a music festival with the arrival of the Work Week. Look forward to feeding the mind during the week and the soul on the weekends.  I highly recommend all these great events and can’t wait to see you at these events and out at the fairgrounds!

Announcing Launch Pad Ignition

I am excited today to announce Launch Pad Ignition, our new startup accelerator program.

This is the culmination of several years of planning and preparation, and we are particularly excited to be launching as a part of the TechStars Network, and by extension the Obama administration’s new Startup America Initiative.

Ignition has been a personal passion project. The conversation started a year ago, after I wrote my open letter to David Cohen (see, they really work).  Andrew Hyde has been a huge supporter and Taylor Davidson has been instrumental in helping us model this out and make it happen. Thank you to the fantastic mentors who have already committed to being onboard.  If you’re interested, please contact me. I’m excited to be working with my co-founders of Barre Tanguis, Will Donaldson, Peter Bodenheimer and Mark Graffagnini, this really is like a startup itself.

An exciting leap for the New Orleans startup ecosystem, Ignition creates a framework to help founders refine their product offering, invigorate their business plans, and raise funding to fuel their growth.  So, if you are a startup in New Orleans, or willing to move to New Orleans to accelerate the growth of your company, definitely check out the info and get your application in before March 18.

Learn more about Launch Pad Ignition, the TechStars Network, and Startup America.  See more detailed information in our press release. We are proud to be playing a role in accelerating entrepreneurship.  Startups, start your engines!

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