New Orleans Entrepreneur Week

About NOEW 2024

NOEW isn't a conference. Dubbed the Mardi Gras of entrepreneurship by USA Today, NOEW is a uniquely New Orleans festival experience designed to connect, educate, and inspire the entrepreneurial ecosystem across the Gulf South. New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) is a 6-day entrepreneurial fest where startup founders, business leaders, aspiring entrepreneurs, industry experts, investors, and creatives come together to celebrate, learn, and network at the intersection of innovation and culture.

Where Culture + Innovation Connect

NOEW engages a dynamic network of entrepreneurs, investors, corporations, non-profits, students, and professionals to support growing companies and elevate entrepreneurial successes through six days of discussion, debate, education, competition, and celebration in a city like no other. Located at multiple venues that showcase the city of New Orleans, NOEW is quite literally where culture and innovation connect.

At NOEW, you can expect to be a part of groundbreaking, forward-thinking conversations with some of the world’s most influential business leaders and the region's industry experts. New this year, enjoy NOEW in tandem with New Orleans Book Festival, happening that same weekend.

History of NOEW

The spirit of New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) first began in 2009 as the “IDEAcorps Challenge,” a program by The Idea Village to engage MBAs and volunteer consultants from across the country. In 2011, the IDEAcorps Challenge evolved into a full week-long event dedicated to entrepreneurship that has come to be known as  “NOEW” (pronounced noh-wee!) – sending a regional and national message that New Orleans’ entrepreneurial ecosystem is thriving and growing. Since then, NOEW continues to evolve and is now an annual festival that serves as a platform for the rapidly expanding New Orleans and Gulf South entrepreneurial ecosystem. With attendance growing steadily every year, NOEW is an integral piece of The Idea Village’s vision of New Orleans being the hub of entrepreneurship in the South.

Why New Orleans?

Because when other cities compete, we collaborate; when other communities close their doors, we open our arms; when other people give up, we hustle forward. NOEW celebrates the unique innovation, entrepreneurship, technology development, culture, and new thinking that is constantly emerging from New Orleans and the Gulf South.

NOEW is produced by The Idea Village, a 501(c)(3), whose core belief is that entrepreneurship is an agent of social and economic change. As an early champion of entrepreneurship in New Orleans, the organization has played an integral role in catalyzing the city's entrepreneurial movement. In addition to supporting over 16,000 entrepreneurs, The Idea Village has successfully elevated New Orleans' reputation as a hub of innovation, entrepreneurship, and business. By serving as a catalyst and developing programs that provide direct support and education to founders and early-stage companies, The Idea Village helps entrepreneurs build innovative and industry-leading companies that generate revenue and jobs and help create a more vibrant, inclusive, and resilient local economy. www.ideavillage.org.