So, you've probably seen a lot of the ads on TV and on social media for Idea week that is happening, but you may not know exactly what it is.

You might have no idea.

I'm joined now by Marty.

Marty, tell me a little bit about this.

This used to be run by Notre Dame, but that's kind of changed this year.

Can you kind of fill me in on on what Idea Week is and who is running it?

Yes.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Great to be here.

Idea week was started in 2017 by the University of Notre Dame, and from its inception, it was meant to be a celebration of arts, culture, music, entrepreneurship.

When Notre Dame ran it, it was very, I would say very high tech focused, a little bit more high tech focused, high growth potential, startup focused.

They have for years been trying to shift it to a more community focused event.

Which is why they approached us last year at the end of Idea Week and said, asked us if we would be willing to take it.

The South Bend - Elkhart regional Partnership and sorry, our startup, South Bend.

Elkhart is, a regional entity that promotes economic development.

And, we were a longtime partner of Notre Dame already.

And so it made sense that we could take it over and drive it forward as more of a community based event.

And so tell me a little bit about the South Bend Elkhart Regional Partnership, because, in some ways, your nonprofit organization has taken a back seat on a lot of community initiatives.

But I know that you're more, forward facing now.

So can you kind of explain before we get into Idea Week what it is that the regional partnership actually achieves, on an annual basis?

Sure.

Sure.

Yeah.

I mean, we are, an economic development agency that supports the region and by the region we're talking about Marshall County, Elkhart County and Saint Joe County also, Berrien Cass County counties.

And Michigan technically is our our region of support.

That we do the bulk of our work in Indiana.

Yeah.

I mean, we're a partnership, so we do rely a lot on what we can do to support other partners in the region that are doing work around economic development.

That said, we have been running many of our own initiatives, around talent attraction, retention on supporting entrepreneurship, supporting industry growth, which in some ways is more traditional economic development at a regional scale.

So like encouraging companies to work in the region, highlighting why this region is a great place to start a business or grow a business or expand a business.

And then I think importantly, we also manage that.

Ready for the, from the state of Indiana on behalf of the region.

So we don't make the decision.

We have an RDA that makes the decision, but we help process those dollars and get them out to the community for the projects that have been awarded.

And so with Idea Week, it did feel a little bit insulated on the campus, you know, and now it's it's more in the community.

So how can people get involved?

I mean, as a mentioned, we've seen a lot of the ads on TV and things like that.

So it seems like there's a lot going on for people to get involved with.

We're super proud of what we have built this year.

It's it was a kind of a heavy lift taking it over.

But we we feel really good that we have kept the original intention of it.

We can live that meaning, you know, a really innovative, forward looking conference that mixes up more than just entrepreneurship, but also innovation and networking and at play opportunities.

We in order to make it a little more community focused, we've done, we've really focused on bringing in more workshop, more tangible, workshop based things.

So we broke we broke the event into kind of two days, Wednesday the 23rd being very focused on Walk away thing.

So small business midsize that's an aspiring entrepreneur and pick a workshop.

We have about 15 different workshops running and walk away the next day with ideas that they can implement in their business.

Thursday the 24th.

Doing more inspirational work.

So we're bringing had some really interesting keynotes, some brilliance panels.

Ashley Flowers, who founded the Crime Junkies podcast Max Yoder, is doing a great talk.

He's really from Goshen on, entrepreneurship and mental health and, we've got panels.

Scott Cohen from GitHub, the founder of hollow coming at Notre Dame.

So we've got really interesting and a lot of ways, hometown heroes.

People who have built businesses, maybe they started in the region here, maybe they're somewhere else today, but they really have started to build something here.

Centennial companies.

So a company, regional companies that have survived more than 100 years and, you know, talk to us about how they pivoted, how they survived World War One, World War Two of the Great Depression.

You know, so many things.

And still thriving today in the region.

Like how did they do that?

How did they have to pivot?

How did leadership have to change?

So, really great inspirational stuff happening on Thursday.

And I do know somebody who started a business three years ago.

I mean, the challenges of feeling isolated and, you know, that lack of kind of people to bounce off when you're starting things up before they, they turn into something else.

And then when you do have the opportunity to meet with other people that are going through the same things or have overcome the challenges or can share that network with you and share the people that have helped them.

And we are stronger.

As cheesy as it sounds, we are stronger when we do work together and connect together.

Instead of working against each other, you know?

Absolutely.

Yeah, we we also truly believe that.

We truly believe that.

And that's why we, you know, when Max Yoder talks at lunchtime on Thursday, he talks about he was having his first child at the same time, he's trying to sell this company.

And like the burden that to family, that and the way that his friends and family were able to like support him through that time.

But that's also why we've layered on tons of networking opportunities.

We've got three different happy hours happening.

We've got, you know, okay, go concert coming Wednesday night at Morris.

We've got Rise Fest happening at the same time with an Irish rock band coming to that meeting, coming to Stockholm East.

We really want people to get to know one another, meet one another.

We hope that people are meeting the next business partner, or the next person who's going to invest in their business or, you know, that's what we want to see.

And that they're not alone in their journey.

Just like you're saying you and no matter how much you tell people, like people do business with people that they like, that they can connect with.

And so it's so important that you have these casual opportunities for people to get to know you.

And of course, they need to get to know your business, but they want to get to know you first.

And there's, you know, this is such a great, informal way to do that.

You know, you know, you know, informal, free for the most part, except for a couple of the concerts.

And, and, and yeah, I mean, we live in a world.

I mean, some of the sessions are about AI, right?

And how you can use it in your business.

But at the end of the day, it is still going to be those people that people connections that move your business forward.

Absolutely.

Look, there's so much going on.

Not everybody who wants to take part is an entrepreneur.

I know there's a lot of opportunities for people who just care about their community.

So, where is all this housed?

Where can people find out?

Because there is a lot going on.

So obviously a lot of our viewers will want to pick and choose what they can go to if possible.

So.

So where can they get all that information?

Yeah, yeah.

Idea Week dot com is the best place to get it.

So that's just like it.

Spell.

You can go there.

You can register.

We are using, event management software called Hoova So there's an app you can download after you register and you can add different sessions to your agenda.

It is designed as you know it to be all a cart.

So you can choose to go to a couple of workshops on Wednesday.

And then one of the keynotes on Thursday.

Really, fit your schedule?

Look through there.

We've been joking around like a great day to call in sick and just, take the day off and, go to some of these sessions, do the networking.

But really, you can you can pick and choose.

It makes it challenging to organize, but we're trying to make it as flexible as we can.

And I really it's also free other than a couple of things which are really well priced like the Ok Go concert, which is very good price tickets and a community in coming on Friday night.

The rest of it is free.

So, great chance to just network and plug yourself in.

Well, that's the thing.

You know, when you look at events that are held across the country that are of similar caliber or less, you know, people will pay thousands of dollars to attend these to get the knowledge.

So the fact that it's here in our community and obviously Notre Dame starting it, they had the, you know, capacity to be able to start it.

And I'm sure they're still big supporters of it even though you've taken over and obviously, you know, having it still local carries a lot of weight with it.

But to have it here, I mean, I really hope people do go along to it and, and actually take all the benefit and learning from it that would otherwise cost you thousands and even hotel rooms.

Just if you have to travel somewhere for something like this, you know.

So.

Right, right.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, I completely agree.

I, I've done a bunch of research I cannot find, a similar size region that's putting on an event like this and certainly not for free.

So I think we should be really proud of ourselves and really like this, this this is a huge benefit for the region.

If it wasn't here, would we notice it?

I'm not.

You know, it's like you don't notice the tree that was never planted.

But, this is a very distinct quality of life, opportunity for all of us.

Well, you may not notice it, but you'll notice it.

When these entrepreneurs are able to get the support they need to grow their businesses.

That turns into local jobs.

When these local businesses thrive, that turns into local sponsorship for non-profits and turns into local sponsorship for sports, Little League and things like that.

So people may not see it immediately.

But the more we can help local businesses thrive, the more the entire community, thrives to.

So that's absolutely.

And that is what we believe, and that is why we put so much passion into making this happen.

Yeah, I think we need to talk more after this, because I feel like I could go on and on about all this stuff because I'm just so I love the passion you're bringing to this as well.

This is this is great because I mean, it really does make a difference.

These small things add up.

And when you're building community, you don't know when you're going to need it.

You know, you don't know when that person you're going to meet it.

It can impact your business, but there's a good chance they will.

And there's a good chance that that's going to make a big difference in whet Absolutely.

And look, my business works with all nonprofit organizations.

And so that's why I'm so passionate about for profit businesses doing well, because when they do well, the impact that it has on the community is unbelievable.

And so it's it's it's a whole ecosystem.

You know, the whole thing works together.

So so I love it.

And, you know, I love people doing their own thing because, you know, sure.

Go work for somebody else if you want to.

But when you have the idea America is such a great country for allowing you and giving you the opportunity, that when you have the idea, you can make something huge out of it.

And and it really is the land of opportunity.

And I'll say that as somebody who didn't grow up here, it's that is true still to this day, you know, whatever we we say about the other phrases, but it is the land of opportunity.

So I love hearing and now you have an opportunity.

So go along to idea week you know you know.

Yeah this is a great opportunity.

Yeah.

Really like I said you can pick and choose to so like find out what works best for you if there's a specific session.

We tried really hard to thread the needle between, the original respecting the original mission coming out of Notre Dame, which was a little more high tech focused.

Yeah.

But then also providing workshop opportunities for smaller businesses and midsize businesses or businesses who just want to pivot and learn something new.

So, that's why we have 15 different workshops, is we're really we're trying to respect the whole spectrum of entrepreneurship that's present in our community.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much, for all the work you're putting in.

I'm sure once idea week is over, you'll probably need about a three week vacation.

And would you get, But, but thank you for all the work you've put into it.

And I think it's a great thing for the community to have, so I hope everybody supports it.

Yeah.

Thank you Dave.

We do too.

We're we're very excited.