Startup South Bend-Elkhart to take over IDEA Week operations
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The leadership and operations of a weeklong festival for entrepreneurship and innovation in South Bend originally created by the IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame is changing hands.
The university announced this week that it is transferring control of IDEA Week to Startup South Bend-Elkhart, with planning for the 2025 event beginning immediately.
CEO Bethany Hartley said Startup South Bend-Elkhart has been involved with the event since its inception in 2017, and discussions about the transition in leadership began two years ago.
Hartley told Inside INdiana Business that this was the right time to make the move to create an overall refresh for IDEA Week.
“A natural leadership transition made sense with the timing,” she said. “[We’re] really looking at that connectivity of campus to community, and we feel pretty strongly that we can do that very well. We can work across all the [Notre Dame] campus, plus our eight other higher education institutes we have in the region and really serve as that neutral ground for that collaboration to happen effectively.”
Startup South Bend-Elkhart is a division of the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership that focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation. Notre Dame created IDEA Week to celebrate innovation, entrepreneurship and the regional community.
The weeklong summit draws tens of thousands of attendees who take part in dozens of sub-events and enjoy additional attractions such as concerts and comedy shows.
“IDEA Week has become a focal point to convene and celebrate the activities of the region’s strong culture of innovation and entrepreneurship,” Shannon Cullinan, Notre Dame’s executive vice president, said in written remarks. “Innovation thrives on collaboration, and IDEA week would not be possible without the strong partnership with the community. That partnership, and the region’s broader innovation ecosystem, is poised to grow deeper with IDEA Week under the leadership of Startup South Bend-Elkhart.”
Hartley praised the work done by the IDEA Center to grow the event, and her organization looks to build upon the foundation that was laid before it.
Next year’s IDEA Week, Hartley said, will be set around Notre Dame’s annual Blue-Gold Game, as well as the McCloskey New Venture Competition as it has in years past. But the organization is looking for ways to broaden the programming offered and the areas of entrepreneurship that are covered?
“How might we lean into more of what actually the whole state of Indiana is looking at from an economics perspective?” she said. “So we think about, what does the sports track look like, and how would that look in our region with a university that is well known for their sports identity and brand? What do creative entrepreneurs really need, and could we have a creative artists programming track?”
Hartley noted that they want IDEA Week to build on other similar events in Indiana, like the Rally Innovation Conference this month in Indianapolis and Founder Factory in South Bend in November.
While Notre Dame is no longer handling operations of IDEA Week, Hartley said the university will remain heavily involved in the event, including managing the McCloskey competition, which has been part of the festival since the beginning.
Notre Dame will also oversee at least two other events during the week, though details on those were not made available.
Hartley said that Startup South Bend-Elkhart will establish a CEO Council that will meet with local entrepreneurs to gather input on future expectations for IDEA Week. The first major keynote speaker for the 2025 edition of the festival is expected to be announced soon.