On this 5th anniversary of Katrina, there has been much reflection about New Orleans.  We have made many strides as a city, yet there remains much work to be done.  The city is broad and diverse and I wouldn’t for a minute pretend to know the challenges that so many have faced over the last five years.

One bright spot has been the emergent entrepreneurial community in New Orleans.   I been a New Orleanian equal parts pre & post storm now, and it amazes me how different the business climate is today.  There is a collaborative, bootstrapping, can-do spirit driving us and the last few years have been the most inspirational of my business career.  There is something truly special going on in New Orleans right now, and I am humbled that the people of Launch Pad, our community, is playing such an vital role in this resurgence.

There has been plenty of coverage this week about what is going on in New Orleans, and I wanted to share some of it with you here.  Thanks to everyone in New Orleans for being here and to everyone else for your love and support!

• The Daily Beast
• NBC Nightly News
• NPR – All Things Considered
• CNN

This week’s show was LPTV’s first Summer Fashion Show episode! Guests were Lauren Thom of Fleurty Girl, Jeremy Miller & Aimee Shultz of Shultzilla, & Blake Haney of Dirty Coast. Blake also announced the launch of ArtsNewOrleans.org with Rachel Puckett & Lindsay Glatz. The show closed with a t-shirt fashion cat walk dj-ed by Ben Reece and Chris Schultz!

Our June 25th Episode included guests from PhoneBalls with Gerard Ramos & Chris Tortorich. Andrew Larimer was on and did a “dramatic reading” of Pike Barkerding’s latest news & Ben and Chris also interviewed Roger Ivens from Defenders of the Coast.

3:45 – Pre-roll Starts
4:00 – Broadcast Starts
4:00 – 4:04 – Title Sequence // Standard Welcome with Chris & Ben
4:04 – 4:10 – News & Headlines*
4:10 – 4:11 – Who’s on, What they do
4:11 – 4:14 – Upcoming Events
4:14 – 4:18 – Roger Ivens // DefendersoftheCoast.org // Gulf Hazwoper training with Dan Pierson
4:18 – 4:22 – Andrew Larimer // Pike Barkerding
4:22 – 4:29 – Gerard Ramos // Iphone PhoneBalls

Two brand new events are coming up at Launch Pad in July.  We invite you to join us for both of them.  Please RSVP below.

Wed, July 7th @ Noon – Lunch & Learn: Accounting for the Emerging Business with Don Engler & Jonathan Koenig

We’re kicking off a new luncheon educational series with Don Engler & Jonathan Koenig of Wegmann, Dazet & Company.  They are a local accounting firm that works closely with entrepreneurs and will be sharing some great information about every entrepreneurs most important but often overlooked subject: accounting. A open, informal presentation and group discussion will cover the topics below and more.  Come prepared with your questions:

• The importance of and how to get to having good financial statements to present to lenders, investors and mergers & acquisitions.
• The importance of good internal controls and steps to create them in your growth.
• The availability of state tax credits that can bolster your financial picture as you grow.

The one hour session will be held in the front conference room of the IP building at noon on Wednesday July 7. Wegmann, Dazet & Company is very generously buying lunch so please RSVP below so we can get a head count.

Wed, July 21th @ 5:30 pm – Talent Dating Event @ GNO Code – Mixing business & tech

We try to fill gaps in the startup ecosystem here in New Orleans with the events we host.  This event is designed to bring the tech community (developers & engineers) together with the startup business community (biz peeps & MBA’s).  We want to connect the idea people with the people who can build the ideas.  Modeled after the successful Founder Dating series in the Bay Area.  Give this article a read. The reason we’re calling it Talent Dating and not Founder Dating, is we want to introduce talented people to each other for the purpose of founding a company together or hiring one another to work on a project.

The mixer will take place at 5:30 pm at Capdeville and then will be immediately followed by the GNO Code meeting where the topic will be Apple iPad development.  We invite everyone to attend both.  So we can get a headcount, please RSVP below. See you there.

This was our 1 year anniversary episode! We had some great guests on today with Matthew Moseley on to talk about his book Dear Dr. Thompson & also Alex Hochron to talk about HealthCampNola!
Our next episode will be June 25th as we’ll begin having one LPTV a month the last Friday of each month!

This week was our 48th episode. Jen Schnidman was on talking with Ben and Chris about Drop the Chalk. Adele Tiblier came on the show to discuss a re-cap of the Gulf Aid Concert and Tung Ly spoke briefly about HealthCamp Nola. Finally, Barrett Conrad had on Ralph Schindler as his special tech segment guest.

This week we had Jonathan Maki and Peter Menge on the show talking about what’s new with Valence LLC. (VallenceLLC.com). Freakie Da Dude was also on the show talking about the NOLA Hip Hop Scene (YaHeardMeTV/YouTube.com)
Sadly, this week was Andrew Larimer’s last LAM…However, he’ll be back with an all new segment called Louisiana Triumphant!!

This week we had on Seema Sudan talking about her line “Lia Molly”. Sloane Berrent spoke with guest Jeff Warren of GrassRootsMapping.org. Jon Guidroz was also on to talk about Free-Flow-Power.com.

4:00 – Broadcast Starts
4:00 – 4:04 – Title Sequence // Standard Welcome with Chris & Sloane
4:04 – 4:10 – News & Headlines
4:11 – 4:12 – Who’s on, What they do
4:12 – 4:16 – Seema Sudan // Lia Molly
4:16 – 4:18 – Sloane Berrent // Jeff Warren
4:18 – 4:24 – Jon Guidroz // Free Flow Power
4:24 – 4:29 – Goodbye

We had a very exciting 2010 Launch Fest with a lot of passionate entrepreneurs.  Take a look at the impact of the conference in our Impact Report below.

Launch Fest featured three days of half-day conference sessions between the two weekends of Jazz Fest. Topics included social entrepreneurship, straight-talk with local entrepreneurs, and a pitch session to get companies funded. Of course, in the spirit of Jazz Fest we had four nights of mixers, music, and fun topics. Free and open to the public, the sessions were be held at the IP building. With Launch Fest, we put a new twist on the annual right of spring in New Orleans.

Please see the Launch Fest Impact Report below.  In addition, we wanted to share all of the media from the event:

• Preso Slides: http://hu.la/launchfest2010slides
• Pics Tue: http://hu.la/ccKdQk
• Pics Wed: http://hu.la/9DeYjv
• Pics Thu: http://hu.la/aRscVN
• Video Archive: http://bit.ly/lptv

Launch Fest by the numbers:

• 200+ attendees
• 16 sessions over 3 days with 3 evening mixers
• 10 companies pitched to 18 investors
• 70% of the companies were invited to be introduced to investors
• 2 guests ended up this close to Eddie Vedder: http://yfrog.com/89y1kj

Launch Fest Impact Report

Scene Magazine recently covered Launch Pad in its coverage of the SXSW festival and the Louisiana delegation that was orchestrated by Net2NO to promote digital media and highlight the technology scene happening in New Orleans.

You can check out the digital edition of Scene here. (Very cool)

The final aspect of the hugely comprehensive festival was the SXSW tech scene. “For the second year in a row, New Orleans showcased authenticity, passion & community that has been brewing in the tech scene in Louisiana.” said Chris Schultz of Net2NO and Launch Pad. “The panel about ‘The future of work’ focused on the trend of co-working and highlighted Launch Pad which we are expanding to Baton Rouge and Lafayette this year. And the panel ‘Seed Accelerators’ gave us the tools we need to fill the seed capital gap in Louisiana and start competing on the national startup scene.”

It’s great to see the highlights of the Dear New Orleans pictures that Robert Fogarty took based on the sponsorship of the trip provided by TribeCon.