The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University partners with NOEW for first-ever IDEApitch Winter Showcase

The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University joins JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Commander’s Palace as presenting sponsors for the upcoming New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW). The festival will play a key role in the first-ever IDEApitch Winter Showcase – a free virtual event open to the public. The live broadcast will take place on Thursday, December 10, from 12-2 p.m. at Commander’s Palace. Click here to register for the event.

The IDEApitch Winter Showcase will feature an exclusive interview with Walter Isaacson, the Leonard Lauder Professor of American History and Values and co-chair of the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University, and internet pioneer Steve Case, Chairman and CEO, Revolution LLC, co-founder of AOL and author of The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future.

The event will also include a fireside chat with Ti Martin, co-proprietor of Commander's Palace on how this New Orleans landmark pivoted during the COVID-19 crisis, and IDEApitch, a pitch competition featuring three top-notch local business founders who will compete for a $50,000 investment prize for their emerging startup.

NOEW, which is usually slated as a week-long, in-person event in March, was initially canceled due to COVID-19. Producers of the event at The Idea Village wanted to make sure the founders set to participate in the competition still had the opportunity to do so this year.

“IDEApitch is an annual snapshot of the incredible up-and-coming startups in our region, and we’re excited to support these founders in 2020 by pivoting to a virtual, live-streaming format. We look forward to seeing what these companies have built to date and awarding the winning company an investment prize of $50,000," said David Barksdale, chairman of The Idea Village.

With the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University taking place the weekend leading up to NOEW, plus the overlap of incredible thought leaders involved in both events, it seemed only natural to collaborate.

“The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University is delighted to partner with NOEW for this exciting IDEApitch experience. The mission of our book festival is to connect quality authors on a variety of topics to the local and national literary communities,” said Cheryl Landrieu, founder of The New Orleans Book Festival and co-chair of The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University.

Walter Isaacson, the moderator of the interview, said, “We are excited to host nationally recognized author Steve Case as the keynote speaker on his book The Third Wave. In March of 2020, Steve was originally scheduled to take part in a joint effort to discuss his vision for the future of entrepreneurship. We are grateful that his schedule has allowed him to return for this special event.”

After the interview, viewers will dive right into the 2020 IDEApitch set to take place in the iconic backdrop of the Commander’s Palace courtyard. The three companies presenting are poised for rapid growth in the New Orleans region and were selected from The Idea Village’s VILLAGEx 2020 accelerator program. Serving up 8-minute presentations on their business are DOCPACE, Gilded and Unlock’d.

In addition to the Winter Showcase, make sure to save the 2021 dates for The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University, March 18-20, 2021, and New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, March 22-26, 2021.