COMMUNITY LISTING
Summit at Loyola set for March 11–12; speaker applications now open
New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) will return March 8–13, 2027, with its two-day Summit at Loyola University scheduled for March 11–12. NOEW announced the dates on October 13, 2026, and opened applications for speakers at the same time.
What is NOEW?
NOEW is an annual week-long celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship, with programming at venues across New Orleans. The week builds to the Summit at Loyola, where sessions aim to empower and connect entrepreneurs across the Gulf South.
The event started in 2009 as the IDEAcorps Challenge, a program of The Idea Village that brought MBA students and volunteer consultants from around the country to work with local businesses. It grew into a full week of entrepreneurship programming in 2011, and The Idea Village produced it for its first 13 years. Loyola University New Orleans' Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development joined as co-producer in 2025 and became the sole producer in 2026.
NOEW describes itself as a community effort rather than a single-institution event. Its lead partners include GNO, Inc., The Beach at UNO, The Idea Village, Tulane Innovation Institute, the Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Xavier University's Entrepreneurship Institute, Junior Achievement of Greater New Orleans, and StartUP Northshore. Each partner brings its own programming and audiences to the week.
NOEW's website says the 2026 event featured more than 100 sessions, more than 12 citywide events, and more than 50 partners and sponsors over six days in New Orleans.
2027 Themes
NOEW has announced three themes to guide the 2027 conversations:
- Louisiana in Motion: energy, water, manufacturing, maritime, infrastructure, technology, and emerging industries, with a focus on customers, contracts, capital, careers, and partnerships.
- Culture Is Business: food, music, hospitality, media, festivals, and creative industries, with a focus on ownership, revenue, audience, distribution, staffing, and growth.
- The New Rules of Building: technology, customer reach, storytelling, relationships, decision-making, and building businesses that last.
Want to Speak?
Speaker applications for NOEW 2027 are open. Entrepreneurs, business leaders, and ecosystem partners who want to present should look at the three themes above, which NOEW uses to guide its programming. Application details are on the NOEW themes page at www.noew.org/themes-2027. Questions about speaking can go to hello@noew.org.
How to Stay Updated
NOEW has not yet released ticket information for 2027. Anyone interested in attending can join NOEW's email list at www.noew.org for updates as planning continues. A save-the-date calendar file is also on the website.
For event information, visit www.noew.org. General questions go to hello@noew.org. NOEW also posts updates on Instagram and X at @helloNOEW.
Kim M. Braud is the Founder & Editor of Evans Cutchmore Press, an independent newsroom covering Louisiana and the Gulf South, and the author of Financial Power for Life™, a financial literacy framework that helps people earn, protect, grow, leverage, and transfer wealth. Her reporting focuses on government, infrastructure, business, culture, and the public policies that shape communities, with a commitment to highlighting progress and the people doing meaningful work in a news landscape often dominated by conflict and crisis.
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