Category Archives: Start-ups

Tablet Hotels Features New Orleans- by Hallie Davison

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New Orleans is a city that spoils the imagination. Its history is spirited, its food unrepentant, and its climate is sultry nearly all year long. It’s no wonder that so many creative minds (William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Louis Armstrong) have been unable to resist its romance. But lately New Orleans has been attracting a new kind: ambitious entrepreneurs who have found fertile ground along the bayou.

After a trifecta of trauma — Hurricane Katrina, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and a global recession — entrepreneurship has been key to the city’s cultural and economic revival. In March New Orleans hosts its fourth Entrepreneur Week, a conference where aspiring business owners receive coaching from big-name investors and hone their pitches with an audience of MBA students from programs at Tulane, Stanford and Northwestern, among others. It’s the culmination of a six-month-long “start-up season” organized by the non-profit Idea Village, whose ambition to create a sustainable ecosystem for New Orleans start-ups is beginning to come to fruition: they’ve overseen a portfolio of companies that have, between them, created at least a thousand new jobs.

In the new New Orleans entrepreneurship is up, and that can-do spirit just might be the key to the city’s rejuvenation

Like many a successful partnership, the foundation for Idea Village sprouted from a conversation at a local bar. That bar, in fact, is the beloved Loa, in the stylish International House hotel. Loa continues to be a place for hatching ideas, thanks to bartenderAlan Walter’s killer cocktails and to a fortuitous location a short walk from Entrepreneur’s Row, an office building shared by a number of start-ups. Across the street, the industrial-chic Loft 523is the top option for those hunting down that first round of funding. Generously sized studio-style rooms, a strong wi-fi signal, and a well-outfitted gym will more than satisfy the needs of today’s self-starter.

Beyond the conference, New Orleans’s “brain gain” can be spied — and, better yet, overheard — at various hotspots around town. Forgo the traditional beignets and start your day with their green breakfast sandwich (the usual, plus arugula, avocado and tomato) from the proudly locavore Satsuma Cafe in Bywater, one of the city’s most artistic neighborhoods. Be sure to stroll along Dauphine Street and soak up the 19th-century architecture that has earned the neighborhood its Historic District status. For lunch, head to the Warehouse District, where art galleries and start-ups are happy bedfellows, sharing oversized loft spaces that were once repositories for shipments of cotton, sugar and coffee. Cochon Butcher, a spin-off of Donald Link’s Cochon, has quickly become the midday spot of choice for the area’s young professionals.

The afternoon might entail buckling down with the computer, so drop into Launch Pad, a co-working space in The Intellectual Property, or IP, another new collaborative office building. In addition to finding a desk, you’re also likely to gain some new friends. Come happy hour, head to the nearby gastro-pubCapdeville for good company, an extensive beer list and gut-pleasing dishes like poutine fries and truffled mac & cheese. And last, since this is the city that prides itself on its late-night tinctures, don’t miss a nightcap at the cocktail bar Cure, where they’re quite insistent about challenging your expectations. Try a Vixen’s Heart, whose ingredients include 12-year scotch, Cynar and smoked grapefruit oil. That’s the sort of risk/reward calculation that doesn’t require an MBA.

— Hallie Davison, March 2012

This article was originally published for Tablet.  Read the original article here.

Gnarly NOLA-ites: The NOLA Project and Romeo and Juliet

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I know I said I was on hiatus from writing and trust me after this post I have full intention to sit back and enjoy the holiday season as any good New Orleanian should.  However, I am going to make an exception for this one post:

Years ago (about 6/7 years now), native New Orleanians Andrew Larimer and Alex Pomes came together with an idea to create a theater company that brought witty and intelligent theater to New Orleans.  At the time Larimer was a theater student at NYU and Pomes was actively pursuing his acting career in New Orleans and true to NOLA form, the duo met in high school while studying at NOCCA (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts).

The idea was simple, bring fresh and undiscovered New York talent to New Orleans where the actors would find themselves participating in real theater in a community that not only appreciated it, but that they could afford to live in.  Pomes had the New Orleans connections and Larimer knew the fresh New York talent and in the summer of 2005 the idea was born in their first production, The Cripple of Inishmaan.  The production was sharp, witty and dark a perfect satire for the New Orleanian sense of humor.  Despite the shows interruption by Katrina, the NOLA project moved forward, offering satirical and intelligent productions every summer.

After completing college, Larimer moved back to New Orleans and the NOLA Project moved from summer theater to year round productions and by this time they had partnered with the talented Creative Director A.J. Allegra.  In the post-Katrina, renaissance of New Orleans, the NOLA Project thrived, finding creativity in the adversity of limited theater spaces and funding.  The young group not only thrived in the limited environment, their energy and youth actively engaged a once sleepy theater community and revived the cities passion for the stage.

In their most recent collaboration, the NOLA Project teamed up with the New Orleans Museum of Art for an outstanding and sold out production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden where fairies and misfits alike frolicked through the sculptures and pine grove, leading their audiences through the various scenes on foot in a dreamlike trance.

The Shakespeare production was such a success that a creative arts partnership was born.  Now on their third production at the museum, the NOLA Project presents their own rendition of Romeo and Juliet.  Using the New Orleans Museum of Art’s neo-classical building as inspiration, the company sets the play in the museum’s Great Hall amongst the ionic columns and the grandiose staircase.

The first scenes of the play begin outside the museum, set as the streets of Verona where the Capulet’s and the Montague’s first meet in the famous opening duel.  The audience is then brought into the Great Hall for the remainder of the performance, where they are treated to scenes set in the commons of the hall, the steps and even the second floor balcony.  In and of itself, the setting brings a romantic quality back to the Shakespearian play that is often missing from modern productions of the piece.  Finally a fantastic use of the museum’s problematic great hall design, theater in the round lives at NOMA.  New Orleans creativity at its finest, kudos to the NOLA Project for a fantastic performance that literally keeps the audience guessing from every angle.

The show opened last night, so be sure to get your tickets before they sell out!

http://nolaproject.com/shows.php

Why New Orleans? Why Now?

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It fascinates me to look through the lenses of the outsider.  As a native, I’m not always as in tune with what makes this city so unique as those who aren’t local. I adore meeting new people, especially people who aren’t from here.  I’m always intrigued by the many reasons that they chose to move.  Why New Orleans?  Why now?

The answers to these questions vary considerably.  Some came down to rebuild after hurricane Katrina, fell in love with the place and never wanted to leave.  Some loved it before the hurricane.  Some came for jobs.  Some came with no job all for a life change.  Whatever the reason, the common link points back to passion-for something, for someone, for anything, for New Orleans.

But, why New Orleans?  Why now? Earlier this year, Forbes Magazine has called New Orleans one of the biggest brain magnets in the country, while traditional magnet cities like New York have taken quite a hit. The common argument has been that the events following hurricane Katrina have set this new wave of energy into motion, and Forbes also agrees with this analysis.

It’s easy to point the finger to Katrina for the many changes taking place in New Orleans.  It is so easy that I find it often overshadows the other factors that are key elements to the changing city.  Have the years following hurricane Katrina impacted the city for the positive?  Absolutely.  Is it the only reason that New Orleans is considered the #1 brain magnet in the US?  Absolutely not.

Why now?  In the years following hurricane Katrina the government has made a concerted efforts to create jobs.  They have provided incentives for the film industry and for technology start-ups and this has brought creative talent to Southeastern Louisiana.  No doubt about it.  Combine new jobs, company incentives and a low-cost of living, New Orleans becomes a favorable environment for those with a vision.  But even with all the financial incentives in the mix, people still have to want to be here.

Why New Orleans?  In the broader culture of the US, we have seen the rise of something called the “creative class.” The description of the creative class sounds a lot like the younger generations (except it encompasses people of all age groups): a class of people who are educated and innovative, people who value culture, the arts, education and expect for their hometown to offer them a diverse buffet of ways to experience and learn.  These people see value in life outside of the office as much as they value their careers, they crave balance and actively seek it.

In a recent study of the cultural economy, Mayor Landrieu says, “This report…vividly illustrates that culture is inseparable from our way of life in New Orleans.  We enjoy a diversity of cultural riches that most cities can only dream about.  This report, for the first time in our City’s history, puts numbers to what we instinctively know—New Orleans is one of the leading centers in the world for the intersection of creativity and commerce.” If you look at the lifestyle of New Orleanians before the hurricane in relation to the creative class one can argue that New Orleans would have begun to move in this direction even if the hurricane hadn’t happened, the hurricane simply put the city on a national and global stage and lit a fire under the local governments initiatives.

Just as people are drawn to New York for its fast pace, energy and beauty, people are drawn to New Orleans for its slower pace, unique people and commitment to the soul.  People marvel at New Yorker’s lifestyles for the stuff that they have and the careers they devote themselves to, where they marvel at New Orleanians for the culture they create and the relationships can’t live without.  It comes down to passion.  New Yorkers are passionate about success: wealth, fame, knowledge, career skills.  New Orleanians are passionate about life: friends, family, conversations, experiences, feelings.

As gen-x and gen-y move to the forefront of national discussions, their perspectives on life will also evolve the US perspectives.  New Orleans appeals to the soul of the creative class and we are witnessing a shift.  A shift in the passions of United States citizens, and in the energy, business world and soul of New Orleans.