New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2021, presented by Entergy’s Innovation Lab, Keystring Labs, was a weeklong celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit of our city. This year’s event looked a little different given the virtual setting, but the sense of community and the connections made were as strong as ever. As the producers of NOEW, we’re so grateful to the community members who joined us, the partners and speakers who brought their skills and expertise to the virtual stage, the artists who shared their craft with our audiences, and the volunteers who helped make the magic happen behind the scenes. Ahead, take a look at NOEW 2021 by the numbers.

80 + SESSIONS

Our sessions this year covered a vast range of topics around our 2021 themes. We dove into resiliency, supporting culture bearers, venture capital, innovation, and inclusivity throughout more than 80 sessions in 5 days.

137 SPEAKERS

We were honored to have a diverse set of speakers who educated and inspired our audience. Headliners like Lisa Jackson, Brad Feld, Nina Compton, Patrick Comer, and Christina Wallace, and hundreds of local influential leaders, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and experts shared their lessons learned across a wide variety of industries.

2,100+ REGISTRANTS

After a year of virtual living, we know first-hand the burnout of staring into a computer screen. But our 2,100+ registrants showed that virtual events have a lot of benefits, too--people tuned in from work, from the comfort of their couches, from watch parties with their friends, from all over the country, and even all over the world (we had registrants from 34 countries!).

89 JOB SEEKERS CONNECTED WITH LOCAL TECH & INNOVATION COMPANIES

NOEW teamed up with GNO Inc. to present the first-ever WorkNOLA Talent Den, where local job seekers could network with companies hiring in our region. The WorkNOLA Talent Den featured virtual recruitment booths, spotlight sessions, and one on one appointments with hiring managers from innovative companies like Resilia, Lucid, KeyString Labs, Ochsner Health, GeistM, iSeatz, Revelery, and Lookfar.

$19,500 RAISED TO SUPPORT LOCAL CULTURAL ENTREPRENEURS

NOEW is free for the community, but this year we included ways for attendees to opt-in to supporting the local economy. This was a challenging year for businesses, restaurants, musicians, and venues, and NOEW registrants were given the option to support local chefs through ordering meals to be delivered during NOEW programming, and purchase t-shirts and tote bags whose proceeds went to artists and venues. We’re so proud that our network raised $19,500 for local artists, chefs, and venues like Tipitina’s and Music Box Village.

$135,000 AWARDED TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF ENTREPRENEURS

NOEW 2021 featured two student-centered pitch competitions. During the Tulane Business Model Competition Finals, three finalists from universities around the country competed for their share of a $125,000 cash prize investment. Then, during the Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge State Finals, four teams of high school students competed for $10,000 in college scholarships.

$50,000 INVESTMENT AWARDED TO A LOUISIANA, WOMEN-OWNED STARTUP

The finale of NOEW was IDEApitch, where three regional startups were selected to compete for a $50,000 investment prize in front of judges and a live (socially distanced and masked) audience at The Broadside. Something Borrowed Blooms, a startup co-founded by cousins Lauren Bercier and Laken Swan, took home the prize for their revolutionary business that offers premium silk wedding flowers for rent.

We’re grateful to everyone who tuned in, connected, and supported the entrepreneurial community with us during NOEW. Some of the sessions are available to view on Vimeo here, so feel free to check out anything you missed or rewatch the sessions and performances you loved.

As a future-oriented organization, we’re already looking ahead to NOEW 2022! If you attended NOEW this year, we’d love to hear about your experience so we can make it even better next year--you can fill out an anonymous survey here. And as always, we’re here if you have any questions, comments, or want to chat about anything NOEW, so feel free to drop us a message at hello@noew.org.

NOEW 2021 BY THE NUMBERS