Baton Rouge businessman John Schneider is leading an effort to bring a Louisiana version of the popular South by Southwest to New Orleans later this year.
NX, as the event will be called, is a playoff of SXSW, the abbreviation of the popular Austin festival, and will feature three days of keynote speeches, breakout sessions and workshops focusing on entrepreneurship and technology from around the state.
“NX is positioned to be the singular entrepreneurial and technology-focused event that taps into the state’s new business environment,” reads the marketing brochure for the conference, which will be held Sept. 16-18 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. “Louisiana is experiencing an emergence of entrepreneurism and technology innovation. It is a movement with momentum so powerful the state and its major cities are grabbing the attention of prominent companies, influential disrupters and the media.”
Schneider, whose partners in the venture are Kelly Binnings and Rene Rosenthal, says for too long Louisiana has been associated with swamp people and drive-thru daiquiris. It’s time to make the rest of the country aware of what is really going on here, he says.
“What we want to do is focus national and international attention on Louisiana’s advancements in entrepreneurship and technology,” he says.
Plans call for the event to kick off with a gubernatorial forum featuring the major announced candidates in the race and to conclude with a presentation of the Innovator of the Year award. In between, the conference will feature keynote speeches from major national figures and breakout sessions led by local business leaders, as well as a series of pitch-night competitions.
Though NX is being held in New Orleans, the event is not exclusive to the Crescent City. Rather, Schneider says, the event is about entrepreneurship activity throughout Louisiana, including Baton Rouge.
“You could call Baton Rouge an epicenter of entrepreneurism and technology, with IBM, the Louisiana Tech Park and the incubators,” Schneider says.
—Stephanie Riegel
