Entrepreneur conference in Indy offers idea ‘exchange’

Organizers of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, which Indianapolis will host next week, say it offers the state parallel opportunities: Showcase Indiana’s entrepreneurial accomplishments to an international peer group while also gleaning new ideas from those peers.

The GEC, which takes place Monday through Thursday, is expected to bring together several thousand founders, investors, policymakers and others involved in entrepreneurship worldwide.

The event lineup includes workshops, panel discussions, networking, social gatherings and more than 200 speakers from around the world, including entrepreneur and Indiana University graduate Mark Cuban as keynote speaker and about three dozen Indiana-based speakers.

Other high-powered Indiana speakers on the roster include Gov. Mike Braun, Purdue University President Mung Chiang, Indiana University President Pamela Whitten, and the CEOs of Beck’s Hybrids, Cummins Inc. and Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc.

Jonathan Ortmans, founder of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, the Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit that organizes the annual event, said the gathering is designed to offer a “knowledge exchange.”

The host region—for this event, Indianapolis and the state as a whole—can highlight their successes and challenges in promoting entrepreneurship, providing lessons and inspiration for attendees. In turn, Ortmans said, the host region can pick up ideas from those attendees.

“It’s really a kind of two-way learning exercise,” Ortmans said of the dynamic.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is all-in on the event, co-hosting along with the Global Entrepreneurship Network and contributing significant financial support.

According to a contract between the IEDC and the Global Entrepreneurship Network, the IEDC is providing $2.56 million to cover the Global Entrepreneurship Network’s fixed costs for the conference, which has a total budget of $5 million.

“Our team has been working hand in hand with [the Global Entrepreneurship Network] to plan for and prepare an inspiring event that will advance global entrepreneurship, highlight the best of Indiana, and create new opportunities for current and aspiring Hoosier founders,” IEDC spokesperson Erin Sweitzer told IBJ via email.

International connections

This will be the event’s first time back in the United States since 2009, when the inaugural gathering took place in Kansas City, Missouri. In the years between, the GEC has been held in a different locale each year, from Dubai to China, England, Russia, Brazil and other countries.

Ortmans said he expects this year’s event to draw 3,000 to 4,000 attendees from about 150 countries. About half of the attendees will be from the United States, he said. The size of the gathering is capped so attendees have a chance to make genuine connections without feeling overwhelmed by the size of the crowd.

“Rather than go on a trade mission to one particular market and put all your eggs in one basket to make connections for potential future growth, you’re going to see some of the best leaders come to Indiana,” Ortmans said. “We want people in Indiana to walk away and say, ‘I walked away with a whole range of new relationships that I’m going to follow up on.’”

Ortmans said Indiana will also have plenty of lessons to offer its peers. As an example, he said, the state has gained a reputation for its focus on entrepreneurship as a way to spur economic growth. “And that’s unusual, because most economic development departments of states, they still tend to focus more traditionally on … ‘How do we attract companies that already have a lot of employees into our state?’”

In addition to its financial sponsorship, the IEDC has also taken the lead in organizing what it calls ecosystem tours during the GEC.

Attendees can choose to participate in one of six full-day tours in which they will visit a variety of locations to hear from people working in different areas of innovation and entrepreneurship.

A tour focused on creating life sciences manufacturing and innovation hubs, for instance, will take visitors to Fishers to learn about life sciences activities in that city. Another tour that focuses on defense technology collaboration will highlight southern Indiana’s defense-focused research centers, technology hubs and companies.

Morgan Snyder, spokesperson for the destination marketing organization Visit Indy, said the city is no stranger to hosting international gatherings. She pointed to the Sweets & Snacks Expo, the FDIC International fire and rescue conference, and the Gen Con tabletop-game convention as examples of local events that draw a significant number of international visitors.

But the ecosystem tours, Snyder said, will allow GEC attendees to engage more deeply with the state while they’re here.

“We’ll have thought leaders in the city that are going to see through these ecosystem tours the success that Indianapolis and Indiana has created and then be able to take best practices back with them,” Snyder said. “It’s incredible, and that’s the power of tourism.”

On a more tangible level, Snyder said Visit Indy expects that the GEC will generate nearly $6 million in local economic impact. Visit Indy calculates economic impact using a proprietary algorithm that considers factors such as the length of the event, number of hotel rooms booked and amount of convention center space booked, Snyder said.

‘A general introspection’

The GEC comes at a time of transition—and tensions—regarding the state’s role in economic development.

The IEDC has recently come under scrutiny by Gov. Mike Braun, who last month expressed concerns about transparency issues and potential “impropriety” at the organization. Earlier this month, the Governor’s Office said it was hiring an independent firm, Carmel-based FTI Consulting, to conduct a previously announced forensic audit of the IEDC and its affiliated entities.

The state has also frozen funding to Elevate Ventures, a nonprofit that invests federal and state money into Indiana startups on behalf of the IEDC.

But both Ortmans and Sweitzer said these issues will not affect the upcoming GEC or the $2.56 million the IEDC agreed to provide in a contract that was signed under former Gov. Eric Holcomb.

“The IEDC contractually committed in 2023 to support the event financially and will meet its financial obligation,” Sweitzer said via email.

Governor’s Office spokesperson Griffin Reid declined to make a separate statement to IBJ, saying the Governor’s Office is in agreement with the IEDC’s remarks.

Ortmans said he is aware of the situation between the Governor’s Office and the IEDC and is confident that it will not affect next month’s event. “That has not impacted the work that we’re doing. The event is well planned and well supported.”

On a similar note, Ortmans referenced the national conversation these days about public budgets, efficiencies and disruption of the status quo.

Describing this conversation as “a general introspection,” Ortmans said he views these issues from an entrepreneurial lens.

“We actually see that kind of disruptive thinking as fairly positive. I mean, it can’t go on all the time, but it’s a good idea, from time to time, for us all to ‘spring clean.’”•