Biz New Orleans March 2024 by Renaissance Publishing

JON ATKINSON

CEO, THE IDEA VILLAGE

CRAFT BREWERS ARE CONTENDING WITH SLOWED GROWTH AND INCREASED COMPETITION.

WALTER ISAACSON

CO-FOUNDER, NEW ORLEANS BOOK FEST AT TULANE UNIVERSITY

A JAZZ FEST FOR IDEAS

STORY OF A STARTUP

Lessons learned from a 9-year ordeal P. 18

CHERYL LANDRIEU

CO-FOUNDER, NEW ORLEANS BOOK FEST AT TULANE UNIVERSITY

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week and New Orleans Book Fest have ambitious plans for a joint venture, and it starts this month with their first big collaboration.

MARCH 2024

A TOUGH YEAR FOR BEER

VENTURING FORWARD

Detarils on this month’s inaugural 3rd Coast Venture Summit P. 28

WORK MEETS PLAY

This local startup’s space is anything but typical P. 54

A healthy heart starts here

Cardiology Patient When you schedule an appointment with an Ochsner cardiologist, you will be cared for by a team of heart and vascular experts who are among the best in the nation, specializing in a full range of heart conditions. We offer the latest diagnostic tools and innovative treatment options to address heart issues such as hypertension, heart failure, arrhythmias and more. With over 100 ongoing clinical trials and state-of-the-art technology, Ochsner provides access to cardiovascular treatments not available anywhere else in the Gulf South. Learn more at ochsner.org/cardio.

Long Live Healthy Hearts | Long Live You

Kate R.

MARCH EVERY ISSUE

PERSPECTIVES

10 PUBLISHER’S NOTE 11 ON THE WEB

TECH How technology is safeguarding New Orleans’ cultural heritage

14 DINING Celebrating 90 years, Middendorf’s and its thin-fried specialty are both thick on tradition. 16 SPORTS Healthy Pelicans add to spring festival season 18 ENTREPRENEUR A 72-year-old business trainer shares her nineyear-long journey from inspiration to sales.

FROM THE LENS 58 WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT? A New Orleans attorney’s zerowaste restaurant and food lab are changing minds and palates.

08 EDITOR’S NOTE

IN THE BIZ

VOLUME 10 ISSUE 06

62 NEIGHBORHOOD GEM Despite multiple tragedies, this Riverbend staple is still serving up Veracruz cuisine and looking forward to a new venture. 64 NEW ORLEANS 500 Evan Holmes, general manager at Caesars Superdome, Smoothie King Center, LSED Properties, ASM Global

22 BANKING+FINANCE Louisiana energy partnership wins “largest grant ever” from National Science Foundation 24 HEALTHCARE A city is only as healthy as its most marginalized community. 28 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT A bold new offering will debut at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week this month. 30 GUEST Today’s mobile apps work great. Why would policymakers change that?

GREAT WORKSPACES

A local tech startup’s new office space echoes the company’s ethos — playful, dynamic and unexpected.

A Challenging Year for Beer

In 2024, Louisiana’s nearly 50 craft brewers are contending with slowed growth and increased competition.

A Jazz Fest for Ideas

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week and New Orleans Book Fest have ambitious plans for a joint venture, and it starts this month with their first big collaboration.

BI Z N E WO RL E AN S.COM

EDITOR’S NOTE

Publisher Todd Matherne EDITORIAL Editor Kimberley Singletary Art Director Sarah E.G. Majeste

Digital Media Editor Kelly Massicot Associate News Editor Rich Collins

The Next Fest

n talking to Cheryl Landrieu, Jon Atkinson and Walter Isaacson for this month’s cover Q&A I could hear in their voices how excited they were about their new collaboration and that excitement was infectious. When they shared that the goal would be for NOEW and the New Orleans Book Festival to come together to create a new festival of ideas, Jon specifically mentioned a dream would be to craft something akin to Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) festival — one of Texas’ largest festivals celebrating music, film and culture. I took a girls’ trip to Austin last year that happened to coincide with this festival, so I got to see first-hand how it took over the city, but how big of an economic impact does it have? According to the festival, in 2023 SXSW had a $380 million impact on Austin, which included the booking of nearly 11,500 hotel rooms. SXSW is held in March every year, (just like our NOEW and Book Fest). The festival was canceled in 2020, virtual in 2021, and scaled back in 2022, when the economic impact was estimated around $280 million. This is the first year that SXSW has been fully back, and it surpassed its pre-pandemic 2019 impact of $355 million. Last year also marked a major expansion of SXSW with the inaugural SXSW Sydney in Australia. Held from Oct. 15-22, the festival included superstars like Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts and Chance the Rapper, as

Perspective Writer Drew Hawkins Contributors Megan Balch, Joe Landry, Ashley McLellan, Chris Price, Poppy Tooker, Keith Twitchell ADVERTISING Senior Account Executive Meghan Schmitt (504) 830-7246 Meghan@BizNewOrleans.com

well as the biggest esports tournament in the world and a music festival with more than 300 performances. (It’s worth noting here that New Orleans’ Carnival season still far outpaces SXSW with an estimated economic impact of over $891 million in 2023). Still, following up Mardi Gras with another festival the size of SXSW would obviously be a boon for the city. This collaboration, along with the addition of the 3rd Coast Venture Summit, is great news for this region, which I’m excited to see continues to move toward fully capitalizing on its innate strengths. Among those is a culture unlike anywhere else in the world — a fact we’ve all just experienced in a big way once again. Here’s to keeping that momentum going. Thanks for reading.

KIMBERLEY SINGLETARY

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RENAISSANCE PUBLISHING PRODUCTION Digital Director Rosa Balaguer Arostegui Production Designer Ashley Pemberton Production Designer Czarlyn Ria Trinidad MARKETING Marketing Manager Greer Stewart CIRCULATION Distribution John Holzer ADMINISTRATION Office Manager Mallary Wolfe VP of Sales and Marketing Kate Henry Chief Executive Officer Todd Matherne For subscriptions, call (504) 830-7231

2023 Gold Best Feature Layout Gold Best Beat Reporting, Real Estate Silver Best Feature Series Silver Best Personality Profile Silver Best Cover Silver Best use of Photography/Illustrations Bronze Best Overall Design 2022 Gold Best Feature Gold Best Recurring Feature Silver Best Feature Layout 2021 Gold Magazine Design Gold Best Explanatory Journalism Gold Feature Design Silver Best Feature Bronze Best Use of Multimedia 2020 Silver Best Recurring Feature 2019 Gold Best Recurring Feature Gold Best Explanatory Journalism 2018 Gold Most Improved Publication Silver Best Recurring Feature 2017 Silver Best Recurring Feature Bronze Best Daily Email 2016 Bronze Best Feature Layout

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Biz New Orleans is published monthly by Renaissance Publishing, LLC, 110 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005; (504) 828-1380. Subscription rate: one year $48, no foreign subscriptions. Postage paid at Metairie, LA, and additional mailing entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Biz New Orleans, 110 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005. Copyright 2024 Biz New Orleans. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. The trademark Biz New Orleans is registered. Biz New Orleans is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos and artwork, even if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. The opinions expressed in Biz New Orleans are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine or owner.

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

SALES TEAM

March-ing On

his month starts with a packed luncheon for the New Orleans Chamber. On Friday, March 1, at the New Orleans Marriott on Canal Street, Sandra Lombana Lindquist and her team have assembled a list of speakers from the Governor’s New Orleans Transition Council. The speakers will provide an update on their recommendations and progress to help guide the legislative agenda on crime and economic conditions in New Orleans. Speaking of legislative session, the regular state session will convene at noon on March 11, and adjourn at 6 p.m. on June 3. So, the Jefferson Chamber’s annual legislative breakfast is Thursday, March 7, at the Hilton New Orleans Airport. The keynote speakers are Will Green, CEO of Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), and Michael Hecht, CEO of GNO, Inc., who will present on their supporting agenda items for the upcoming session. Also in attendance are members of the Jefferson Parish delegation who will “pass the mic” on their specific legislative items as well. The month ends with Easter Sunday, but before that Biz New Orleans will host another

KATE HENRY VP of Sales and Marketing (504) 830-7216 Kate@BizNewOrleans.com

session of Biz Leaders. If you are looking to grow your leadership skills, join us on March 22, from 8 a.m. to noon as national EOS implementer Matt Hahne leads a Launching Leaders session designed to help you continue your professional growth. Space is limited. Register by visiting BizNewOrleans.com/Biz-Leaders.

MEGHAN SCHMITT Senior Account Executive (504) 830-7246 Meghan@BizNewOrleans.com

TODD MATHERNE CEO and Publisher Renaissance Publishing

ABBY PALOPOLI

START OFF YOUR NEW YEAR WITH BIZ LEADERS NEXT COHORT MARCH 22 10

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Account Executive abby@bizneworleans.com (504) 830-7208

ON THE WEB BIZNEWORLEANS.COM

THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY IS TALKING ON BIZNEWORLEANS.COM Catch all the latest news, plus original reporting, people on the move, videos, weekly podcast and blogs, digital editions of the magazines and daily Morning Biz and afternoon newsletters. If it’s important to business in southeast Louisiana, it’s at BizNewOrleans.com.

BIZ TALKS PODCAST

“Their interests will be maximizing profits day in and day out and getting back the $2.5 billion purchase price. That will make it a completely different animal from the Blue Cross we know and love.”

On Feb. 7, Houston-based helicopter operator Bristow and Vermont aerospace company Beta Technologies hosted an electric vehicle flight demonstration in Houma, Louisiana. It marked the first time an electric aircraft has come to Louisiana. ¶ Bristow provides aviation services to offshore energy companies and government entities in 17 countries. It operates several outposts in Louisiana and Texas that serve companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Areas of focus include personnel transportation, search and rescue, medevac, fixed-wing transportation, unmanned systems, and ad hoc helicopter services.

EPISODE 183

Port NOLA Updates from Chairman Joseph Toomy

Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans, Toomy discusses efforts to increase cooperation between south Louisiana’s five ports, the Port of New Orleans’ plans to build a new container terminal in St. Bernard Parish, the rebound of the city’s cruise ship industry and more.

EPISODES 181 AND 182

NOLA Needs an Attitude Adjustment

Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming speaking on Jan. 8 about his opposition to the proposed sale of nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana to the Indiana-based company Elevance. The same day, Louisiana’s hospital association also voiced opposition to the $2.5 billion deal, and state legislators issued their own critical report.

Too much good news to pack into one episode! An uplifting conversation about New Orleans with native Frank Rabalais that hits back at the all-too-common negative attitude regarding life in the city. These two podcasts expound on Rabalais’s popular guest column on BizNewOrleans. com and in the January 2024 issue.

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PHOTO COURTESY MIDDENDORF’S SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

IN THE BIZ

16 SPORTS

Healthy Pelicans add to spring festival season

18 ENTREPRENEUR

A 72-year-old business trainer shares her nineyear-long journey from inspiration to sales.

DINING

Celebrating 90 years, Middendorf’s and its thinfried specialty are both thick on tradition.

IN THE BIZ DINING

POPPY TOOKER has spent her life devoted to the cultural essence that food brings to Louisiana, a topic she explores weekly on her NPR-affiliated radio show, Louisiana Eats! From farmers markets to the homes and restaurants where our culinary traditions are revered and renewed, Poppy lends the voice of an insider to interested readers everywhere.

Consistency is Everything

The Middendorfs’ extended family included generational employees as well. Susie’s husband, Joey Lamonte, worked there before they were married, as did his father and sister. Celebrating 90 years, Middendorf’s Horst marvels at the staff he acquired with the purchase. and its thin-fried specialty are both thick on tradition. “Miss Deedee started here when she was 18,” he noted. “She’s still working the dining room BY POPPY TOOKER today, 50 years later!” The greatest challenges the Pfeifers face are delivered by Mother Nature. Barely a year after the purchase, Hurricane Ike completely flooded Middendorf’s, beginning Horst’s battle to build back “stronger, higher, drier. If they say use two nails, we use four,” he said. When a storm approaches now, Horst is ready with watertight floodgates. Middendorf’s is quite self-sufficient, ready to operate off the grid with generators powered with a reserve of 1,500 gallons of diesel and 1,000 gallons of propane. or 90 years, a drive north or south Luckily for Middendorf ’s devoted fans, the In 2019, the Middendorf’s brand successfully across the Manchac swamp has Pfeifers deeply appreciated the opportunity to expanded to Slidell. bringing in new customers meant thin-fried catfish to generapurchase the then-73-year-old business. from surrounding states with its convenient tions of fans of Middendorf ’s — “It is real, real special to be the keeper of a location just off I-10. One of the Slidell dining the famed restaurants nestled place like this,” Horst reflected. rooms is named for their beloved Bella Luna. between Lake Pontchartrain and Josie and Louis Middendorf opened their Horst regularly hosts four-course, wine-paired Lake Maurepas. The catfish here seafood restaurant in the tiny village of dinners there, reaching back to his European, arrive by boat, helicopter and even Manchac on July 4, 1934. All the original fine dining roots. seaplane. recipes were Josie’s, who brilliantly developed Every September, both locations hold “Fettu“Once a conductor stopped a freight train to the now-famous, thin-fried catfish. The consiscine Frenzy,” when Bella Luna’s favorite dish run across the parking lot and pick up his to-go tency of that thin-fried catfish means everything is served, but Middendorf ’s two gift shops order,” Chef Horst Pfeifer recalled with a smile. at Middendorf ’s. The simple recipe involves offer Horst’s house-made, paper-thin fettucine Susie Lamonte, granddaughter of founders nothing more than a salt brine and cornmeal noodles year-round. The annual Oktoberfest Josie and Louis Middendorf, sold her family’s cooked in carefully maintained fryers — no celebration showcases Horst’s German favorrestaurant to Horst and his wife, Karen, in 2007. other special seasonings or secrets are involved. ites — from sauerbraten to strudel. With special The Pfeifers lost their own legendary restaurant, After Louis’ death in the late 1940s, Josie German beers on tap, Middendorf ’s OktoberBella Luna, after Hurricane Katrina. With views leased the business to Pat Mydland, a local fest holds an authentic party where Horst’s of the Mississippi River, Bella Luna was known businesswoman who also owned brother often appears in lederhosen as the most romantic fine dining experience in saloons and dance halls nearby. to play the accordion. New Orleans’ French Quarter. Josie continued to live next door Horst declares his greatest Catch Poppy When the news circulated about the to Middendorf ’s, guaranteeing reward is “watching families get Tooker on her radio purchase, many thought Horst and Karen had continuity until her son, Dick together, being happy and enjoying show, “Louisiana lost their minds. Smith, and his wife, Helen, took the same comfort food.” As Eats!” Saturdays “I ran into Archbishop Hughes at a funeral, over the family business, raising Middendorf ’s begins its 90th year, at 3 p.m. and Mondays at 8 p.m. and he said ‘Horst, are you OK? Is everything all their two daughters, Susie and Horst ambitiously hopes to celeon WWNO 89.9 FM. right?” he laughed. Patti, in the restaurant. brate the 125th one day! T

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I L LU S T R AT I O N BY PADDY MILLS

BI Z N E WO RL E AN S.COM

IN THE BIZ SPORTS

CHRIS PRICE is an award-winning journalist and public relations principal. When he’s not writing, he’s avid about music, the outdoors, and Saints, Ole Miss and Chelsea football.

Time to Soar

Healthy Pelicans add to spring festival season BY CHRIS PRICE

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under 50%, their availability has helped them be more consistent. The hope of fans now is that the trio can remain on the floor together though the end of the season and make noise in the playoffs. Through 60 games, Williamson averaged 22.1 points per game (PPG), while Ingram had 21.8 and McCollum had 19.2. At that pace, the Big 3 were averaging a combined 63.1 PPG. Small forward Herb Jones averaged 10.8 PPG and center Jonas Valanciunas had 14.1, meaning the starting five was good for an average of 88 PPG. Coming off the bench, shooting guard Trey Murphy III averaged 12.7 PPG and shooting guard Jordan Hawkins averaged 10.0. The seven combined averaged 110.7 PPG. That’s an output that should keep the Pels flying high against top-tier opponents. Still, head coach Willie Green is asking for more. Specifically, he wants the team to take more 3-point shots. If the team’s Big 3 can stay on the floor together while simultaneously increasing their productivity, there’s no telling how good this team can be. Chris Paul, David West and Tyson Chandler were the best Big 3 to play in New Orleans, but Williamson, Ingram and CJ McCollum may be eclipsing them. The more they are on the floor together, the better they will play together. They know each other’s tendencies, get their timing down and execute smoothly. The Pelicans have tremendous opportunity ahead. Remaining healthy and productive is the key to seizing it.T

NBA IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES April 14 Regular Season ends

April 16-19 Play-In Tournament April 20 Playoffs begin

May 6-7 Conference Semifinals begin (possible move up to May 4-5)

May 21-22 Conference Finals begin (possible move up to May 19-20) June 6 NBA Finals Game 1

June 9 NBA Finals Game 2

June 12 NBA Finals Game 3

June 14 NBA Finals Game 4

June 17 NBA Finals Game 5 (if necessary) June 20 NBA Finals Game 6 (if necessary)

June 23 NBA Finals Game 7 (if necessary)

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY PADDY MILLS

t generally takes the Saints and Carnival seasons to pass before the attention of local sports fans turns to the New Orleans Pelicans. For those just tuning in, surprise, you have a playoff-caliber basketball team at hand. For the past few years, injuries have plagued the Pelicans, but the team — most noticeably their star players — has been able to take the floor consistently this season, and their place in the standings shows it. Through the first week of February, the Pelicans posted a 29-21 record — their best start through 50 games since the 2010-2011 season. They ranked seventh in the Western Conference, had the same record as the sixth-place Phoenix Suns, a half-game back of the fifth-placed Sacramento Kings, and just six games behind the conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder. With the All-Star game in the rearview mirror, the NBA is now focused on the run to the postseason play-in tournament. Unless disaster strikes, the Pelicans should be well positioned

for a playoff run — either by qualifying outright or by making it through the post-season play-in tournament. In today’s game, the top six finishers in each conference qualify for the playoffs. Those who finish seventh through 10th will play in the play-in tournament to determine the seventh and eighth seeds in the playoffs in each conference. In the play-in tournament, the seventh seed will host the eighth seed with the winner advancing as the conference’s seventh seed. Meanwhile, the ninth seed will host the 10th seed in an elimination game, with the winner advancing for a winner-take-all game against the loser of the seventheighth seed game for the eighth and final playoff spot in each conference. From there, the traditional 16-team format will be used to determine the 2023-2024 NBA champion. With about a month and a half left in the regular season, the Pels are poised for postseason play — if they can stay healthy. That’s been a major issue for this team over the past few years. In the first game of last season, power forward Zion Williamson — the team’s undisputed star — suffered a right hamstring injury that limited him to just 29 games played. Shooting guard Brandon Ingram missed 29 games with a left toe injury. Point guard CJ McCollum played in 75 games, but without Williamson and Ingram on the court with him consistently, the team struggled. This season, the Pels’ “Big 3” played together in 28 of the team’s first 60 games. While that’s still

IN THE BIZ ENTREPRENEUR

KEITH TWITCHELL spent 16 years running his own business before becoming president of the Committee for a Better New Orleans. He has observed, supported and participated in entrepreneurial ventures at the street, neighborhood, nonprofit, micro- and macro-business levels.

Story of a Startup

A 72-year-old business trainer shares her nineyear-long journey from inspiration to sales. BY KEITH T WITCHELL

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lished, she then checked to see if anything similar had been previously patented. Finding the field wide open, she enlisted a patent attorney and began working on her application. It was here that the first roadblock appeared. The patent agent rejected several versions of the application, and Thomas became increasingly frustrated with the attorney, who ignored her proposed revisions. “I knew I hadn’t exhausted all my options, so I filed a new application using the language I wanted to use, and it was accepted,” she said. This was 2017, two years after Thomas came up with the original idea. Next up was finalizing the product details. After experimenting with several materials, she settled on microfiber, finding it most effective at picking up dirt while also being more durable. There was only one problem. “Unfortunately, they don’t make microfiber in the United States,” Thomas explained. “It is only produced in China. So, I had to connect with a manufacturer in China. And I do not speak Chinese.” After more internet research, Thomas found

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY PADDY MILLS

t’s never too late to become a successful entrepreneur. A real-life example of this truth is septuagenarian Shelley Thomas, founder and owner of Divine Inspirations Products and Services. A longtime business trainer and consultant, Thomas had pondered several inventions over the years but never moved past the concept stage. “I always thought about inventing things,” she recalled, “but I would run the ideas past my daughter, and she always said no.” While doing some housecleaning one day, Thomas got frustrated with her Swiffer, which required different pads for mopping and dry sweeping. She also didn’t like having to frequently change out and throw away the disposable pads. A permanent, multi-use pad seemed like a much better approach. “My daughter liked this one,” Thomas recounted with a laugh, “so I figured I must be onto something.” Thomas began by creating a basic prototype to see if the concept was viable. This estab-

a supplier and worked through the language issue with few problems. Communicating only via email, she was able to send specs to the company, and after some exchanges of materials and samples, finalize the product. Meanwhile, there was the business side of the operation. Thomas took advantage of every workshop she could find, some online and some from local sources such as Xavier and Southern universities and The Idea Village. “They covered all the different areas I needed for my business,” she noted. “I looked at everything that seemed like it could help me. And most of them were free, so I could take advantage of them despite not having much of a budget. I learned that there is always someone who can help you get what you need.” After completing the state’s and city’s processes to incorporate the business, Thomas was ready to take the final steps: marketing and distribution. She developed a slogan with familiar overtones: “One cloth, that’s all.” Initially, sales are entirely online, via marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart, and through her own website, ecowondercloth.com. Orders are filled by the companies’ fulfillment centers, or by Thomas herself for direct orders. With sales launched in first quarter 2024, Thomas has at last concluded her nine-year journey. “I’m 72 now, and people say, ‘Why are you bothering with this?’” she said. “But if you can do it, why not? Get started, and for each challenge, find a solution, then move on to the next challenge. For everything that didn’t work out, there was something there that I learned that I could take to move on to the next level. “I knew I had a good product; I knew if it was benefiting me it would benefit other people. I didn’t know how difficult it would be, how long it would take. But I just kept moving.” Meanwhile, “I’m already turning over ideas in my head for more new products.” T

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PERSPECTIVES

BANKING+FINANCE

HEALTHCARE

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

GUEST

Louisiana energy partnership wins “largest grant ever” from National Science Foundation

A city is only as healthy as its most marginalized community.

A bold new offering will debut at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week this month.

Today’s mobile apps work great. Why would policymakers change that?

TECH

How technology is safeguarding New Orleans’ cultural heritage

PERSPECTIVES BANKING + FINANCE

RICH COLLINS is an Emmy Award-winning writer, musician and actor known for the Disney Channel TV series “Imagination Movers.” He covers New Orleans business for the Biz New Orleans website when he’s not performing on stages around town and worldwide.

State Clean Energy Efforts Receive Notable Financial Boost Louisiana energy partnership wins “largest grant ever” from National Science Foundation BY RICH COLLINS

statewide effort to hasten the state’s transition to cleaner energy production has won the “largest and most competitive grant ever awarded” by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Focused on the energy transition and decarbonization of Louisiana’s industrial corridor, the NSF grant could add up to $160 million over the next 10 years. The project is led by Louisiana State University along with more than 50 public and private partners. Economic development nonprofit GNO, Inc., supported the grant application process and is celebrating the news. The NSF Engines grant is designed to “support Louisiana’s energy industry, create jobs in the energy sector, develop innovative solutions to energy challenges and help train the world’s energy workforce,” said a GNO,

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Inc., spokesperson. The goal is to capitalize on the state’s existing energy, chemical and petrochemical workforce and infrastructure to become the country’s “epicenter of energy transition.” Officials estimate the state has 250,000 people working in related industries. The NSF announced the award at a Jan. 29 press conference in Washington, D.C. “This award builds on the foundation created by the GNO, Inc.-led H2theFuture initiative, which positioned Louisiana as the nation’s leading location for a hydrogen evolution, and a model destination for coalition building,” said Michael Hecht, GNO, Inc., president and CEO, in a press release. “We are looking forward to working alongside LSU, who led this application, and our partners across south Louisiana to advance an all-of-the-above energy future.” The Louisiana team — dubbed Future Use of Energy in Louisiana, or FUEL — includes

private energy companies, universities, community and technical colleges, and state agencies. The partners said they plan to work together to “drive technology and workforce development in support of Louisiana’s energy industry.” FUEL partners include the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, the Louisiana Board of Regents, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, Greater New Orleans Inc., ExxonMobil, Shell and Baker Hughes. Areas of focus will include carbon capture, transport and storage; hydrogen generation; production of low-carbon fuels and products; water use and management; sustainable manufacturing; and policy development. The state, through Louisiana Economic Development, has pledged an additional $67.5 million to the project over the next decade. This will include research funds for higher education partners. “Leading the FUEL team and being selected for this transformational grant affirms what we already knew — that LSU is one of the nation’s premier research universities, poised to change the lives of the people of Louisiana and the world,” said LSU President William F. Tate IV. “By teaming up with our partners across the state in education, industry and government, we are leveraging the intellectual capital of our state’s best and brightest to make a difference for the energy industry and for the people of every parish in Louisiana.” The NSF chose 16 finalists out of more than 700 concepts. “The inaugural NSF Engines awards demonstrate our enduring commitment to create opportunity everywhere and enable innovation anywhere,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. GNO, Inc., said this win for Louisiana is the “latest transformative federal investment to lead energy transition for the nation.” Last month, the Economic Development Administration named an LSU-led consortium one of 31 national Tech Hubs charged with revitalizing American manufacturing, creating jobs and strengthening U.S. economic and national security within a decade.T

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PERSPECTIVES HEALTHCARE

DREW HAWKINS is a writer and journalist in New Orleans. He’s the health equity reporter in the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration among public radio stations in Louisiana (WWNO and WRKF), Alabama (WBHM) and Mississippi (MPB-Mississippi Public Broadcasting) and NPR. He’s also the producer and host of Micro, a LitHub podcast for short but powerful writing.

Caring for the Most Vulnerable A city is only as healthy as its most marginalized community. BY DREW HAWKINS

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to serving the most marginalized vulnerable community members suffering from the disease of addiction. The continuum of care includes inpatient, residential detox, intensive outpatient, supportive, housing case management, prevention, outreach, community health centers, pharmacy, and other medical services. “We serve the whole person and render a variety of primary care, behavioral health and substance use services,” said Helena Likaj, director of prevention, clinics and 340B pharmacy departments at Odyssey House Louisiana. “These services are made available to individuals who are clients in our inpatient programs, clients at partner agencies, or general community members in need of the services.” Likaj leads Odyssey House’s community health center, pharmacy and prevention-outreach departments. She said community health organizations must have a robust continuum of care because the most marginalized and vulnerable community members face a lot of obstacles when it comes to accessing healthcare,

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ew Orleans is a collection of communities, and it’s at the community level where health disparities, access and outcomes are most apparent — and where they can most effectively be addressed. As the CDC puts it, “Our health and well-being are products of not only the health care we receive and the choices we make, but also the places where we live, learn, work, and play.” The city of New Orleans recognizes this, which is why the New Orleans Health Department (NOHD) has brought together a diverse group of individuals and organizations across sectors to form the New Orleans Community Health Improvement Partnership. The partners share a vision for health improvement, goals, resources, and accountability, with the goal of developing a “shared vision for health in our city, which defines all collective actions.” A case in point is Odyssey House Louisiana. The organization’s programs are dedicated

especially when it comes to stigma surrounding addiction. “Our goal is that when an individual steps through our doors, they are met with stigma-free, compassionate care and can receive comprehensive care, all under one roof,” Likaj said. In one visit to an Odyssey House clinic, a patient can walk in and discuss their hepatitis status or their high blood pressure or birth control, as well as their behavioral health diagnosis. They can talk about their substance abuse issues, get their labs drawn, and leave with their medication in hand from an on-site pharmacy. Likaj said the work can sometimes be difficult. They can see a high rate of no-shows and non-adherence to medications, as well as burnout and fatigue among the staff. There are also the financial challenges. Community health centers like Odyssey Health are often underfunded. But despite these challenges, Likaj said she’s inspired by their clients and their team daily. “To see and hear the feedback from our clients that this is the first time they have ever felt like they were seen and heard for who they are is incredible,” Likaj said. “To see that our staff members show up day in and day out, even in the midst of a pandemic, even after a hurricane, is also incredible because they know that our clients depend on us.” Odyssey House Louisiana is currently working with partners to increase access to reproductive health services at their clinics. They’re increasing screenings and preventative care related to colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and cervical cancer. They’re also working to increase understanding of the disease of addiction, the impact that fentanyl and xylazine is having in communities, and distributing resources to reduce the rates of overdoses, such as Narcan and testing strips. For Likaj, it’s just part of the mission, and the work continues. “We’re here to educate, empower, and equip our community,” she said. T

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PERSPECTIVES TECH

DID YOU KNOW? The first museum digitization projects were started in the 1960s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City started a collective industry effort called the Museum Computer Network in 1967.

CULTURE IN THE CLOUD How technology is safeguarding New Orleans’ cultural heritage BY DREW HAWKINS

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n many ways New Orleans is living, breathing history. But like anything else, that history has to be protected and maintained for future generations. Preservation takes many forms. Museums can preserve artifacts, building codes can protect the city’s unique architecture, and then there’s the human element. Many of the city’s unique cultural traditions have roots that go back hundreds of years, kept alive by people like culture bearers who work to uphold and pass down practices such as second-lines or the beadwork that goes into the iconic Mardi Gras Indian suits.

Digital preservation is the logical next step — and it has come a long way since the days of microfilming. Rebecca Smith, director of the Williams Research Center at The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC), said that it’s important to understand that creating “surrogates” of original material for preservation purposes isn’t a new concept. Archivists and preservationists have been thinking about and doing this in various ways for some time. “The preservation of cultural heritage is important regardless of where you live,” Smith said, “but it’s especially important in New Orleans due to the high risk of environmental impacts due to climate change and natural disasters.” Smith said that every time there’s a hurricane, collections like those at THNOC are at risk. Because of this, they take a lot of precautions and have strict protocols to protect physical items. Combining those measures with a robust digital preservation program helps ensure that records can still be accessed should the original be damaged or lost beyond repair. “While this isn’t something we expect to happen, we want to ensure that items can be available in perpetuity regardless of what happens,” Smith said. For Smith, another extremely important reason for digitally preserving these cultural artifacts, documents and traditions is accessibility. THNOC’s holdings in general consist of more than 30,000 library items, more than 2 miles of documents and manuscripts, a microfilm collection, and more than 500,000 photographs, prints, drawings and paintings, as well as beautiful and unusual 3D objects. Smith said it’s impossible to display or make physically available hundreds of thousands of items at once. By digitizing these items into a fully searchable online catalog that includes images, “we’re able to engage audiences remotely and increase access to our holdings for anyone and everyone with access to the internet. “Our goal is to digitize as many of our visual materials and physical objects as possible,” Smith continued. “As part of our acquisition process, all new or incoming items are digitized as part of our intake protocol.” Given the substantial size of everything in THNOC’s holdings, to retroactively digitize items, curators created a list of priority items. Smith noted that efforts are ongoing and continually shifting. Occasionally, an exciting new acquisition can fall into their hands. For instance, THNOC recently acquired a set of documents from Dr.

“

The preservation of cultural heritage is important regardless of where you live, but it’s especially important in New Orleans due to the high risk of environmental impacts due to climate change and natural disasters.

”

Rebecca Smith, director of the Williams Research Center at The Historic New Orleans Collection

Louis Charles Roudanez, a Creole physician and newspaperman who co-founded the South’s first Black newspaper, L’Union, in New Orleans in 1862. His collection of essays and family papers are significant documents that provide firsthand testimony of the early struggle for African American civil rights in the state and were otherwise inaccessible to the public. For Smith, an interesting part of digital preservation is the amount of people who work in concert to make it possible. Using the Roudanez papers as an example, she said the process involved not just the digitization staff but curators, registrars, catalogers and reading room staff. It’s a multi-step process. “The curators initially became aware of these papers and pursued the acquisition itself. Then, our registration staff stepped in to handle the administrative and legal process of acquiring them and oversaw the shipping, which can often take several months and involves Customs,” Smith said. “Once the items physically arrive at THNOC, our catalogers analyze and interpret the materials, pulling out important details about the subject and creator. Then, our digitization staff and photographers work diligently to capture the items and build the captioning you’ll see in our online catalog.”

Finally, once that process is complete, THNOC’s reading room staff connects patrons and online users with those catalog records. It takes a village. Smith added that the organization worked to make the Roundanez papers available as quickly as possible for their upcoming 2024 history symposium, “Above the Fold: The History of the Newspapers in Louisiana,” which took place February 24. With so much material and the amount of effort that goes into preserving it, digitally saving New Orleans culture will never truly be complete. People like those at THNOC to work every day and the day will never come when they can confidently say every project is finished. For Smith, the responsibility to digitally preserve New Orleans culture can’t be on the shoulder of one or a few institutions. And while digitization efforts are being replicated by museums and other cultural heritage organizations, this is a community responsibility. Digital preservation also has a very real, hard cost. Similar to there being a hard cost to store physical items, there’s an equivalent cost for digital storage. “Currently, we have images of 118,711 accessible items, and this number increases daily,” Smith said. “That means we’re using multiple terabytes of data and spending thousands of dollars each year on storage.” The good news is that Smith said there is one way people can help preserve the city’s unique culture: Consider donating to organizations like THNOC, libraries, archives, museums or whatever is close to your heart. Monetary donations are instrumental to helping preservation initiatives. “There are an endless number of people working in the arts and cultural space that need support,” Smith said. “If you can’t donate monetarily, consider attending their programs or support their work in any way you can.” T

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PERSPECTIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

MEGAN BALCH is program director for The Idea Village. She may be reached via email at mbalch@ideavillage.org.

Venturing Forward A bold new offering will debut at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week this month. BY MEGAN BALCH

s the business community knows, it takes money to make money. Investment can be a catalytic force in any business; high-growth startups are built on the dollars of those who can match the bold vision of founders willing to build something new. The word “venture” — as in venture capital or a new business venture — comes from the same root as “adventure,” meaning to dare, risk or take a chance. The types of businesses that require venture capital are unique because they are taking on a BIG risk — a shot at disrupting how a particular industry works, creating thousands of good jobs, and redefining the market to change what consumers expect as a whole.

New Orleans and the Gulf South are no strangers to venture-scale business creation. Since the early 2000s, there have been dozens

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ATTRACTING CAPITAL TO THE GULF SOUTH

We need to grow the amount of visionary capital who want to do business in the Gulf South. That is why we created the 3rd Coast Venture Summit, March 13-15, 2024: to invite investors looking for fresh deal flow to find the best and

A FULL WEEK OF INNOVATION

The 3rd Coast Venture Summit will provide three days for national investors and founders to meet one-on-one. The event is strategically aligned with the 13th annual New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) — also produced by The Idea Village — and the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University. NOEW and Book Fest are two local, highly popular, and free annual events; all three will converge on Tulane’s Uptown campus on Thursday, March 14. If the business community “ventures” forth boldly together, New Orleans and the Gulf South can truly become America’s “third coast” entrepreneurship. If you’re ready to join us, you can start by inviting your network to attend the 3rd Coast Venture Summit (3rdcoastventuresummit. com). Unlike other cities across the nation, New Orleans welcomes all with its southern charm and hospitality; everyone is invited to build together, not only for financial gain but also to drive innovation across the nation. T

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VENTURE-SCALE BUSINESSES PROPEL THE NEXT WAVE OF INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY FORWARD.

of founders who have seized the unique opportunity to build companies here and in other less notoriously known “startup hubs.” As a result, the success of companies like Lucid, Levelset, Turbosquid, Whetstone, Fluence Analytics, and many more have grown companies from inception to exit and proven that the talent, resources, and networks needed to build a thriving startup exist here. However, at The Idea Village, we believe that a healthy venture ecosystem cultivates talent, access to interesting problems, customers and capital — all in equal parts. While our region is rich in access to both interesting problems (as locals well know) and talent, we lack sufficient visionary venture capital and large-scale customers to match the demand of our innovative startups.

brightest Seed to Series A companies that the Gulf South has to offer. We also hope to recruit and attract these investors to build long-term relationships with the business community in New Orleans and across our region. Not only will this serve our founders and startup ecosystem, but it will ensure New Orleans remains competitive and fertile for current and future founders to have a headquarters they can build from. New Orleans already has a growing number of resources, with some local visionary players such as Benson Capital, Revelry Venture Partners, Boot64 Ventures, New Orleans Startup Fund and more, but we need more outside investment to help scale those amazing businesses being built everyday along the Gulf Coast. National investors are invited to see what’s brewing in innovation across the Gulf South and to explore deal flow that could be highly profitable down the road while meeting and connecting directly with local founders.

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PERSPECTIVE GUEST

JOE LANDRY is the founder of Louisiana-based JPL Technical Solutions, the developer of Tropical Hurricane Tracker.

If It Ain’t Broke… Today’s mobile apps work great. Why would policymakers change that? BY JOE LANDRY

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Twenty years ago, the app’s success would not have been possible without significant investment in the production and distribution of CDs — the physical technology people would purchase to load software onto a personal computer. Today, thanks to Apple and Google, my app is available globally — without the need for manufacturing or physical retail stores. Moreover, in-app advertising allows me to offer the app for free. However, proposed changes by policymakers to the app platform and store model are a real concern, as their ideas could change the model, reduce access to important apps, and increase distribution costs for developers. Although Apple’s and Google’s dominance in the app market is disconcerting for some lawmakers, these companies provide an invaluable platform for developers to effortlessly distribute apps worldwide. A modest fee and compliance with privacy, security and data collection standards were the only prerequisites for introducing my app to these stores.

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY S.E. GEORGE

urricane Katrina destroyed my family’s home, an experience that is etched deep into my memory. In coastal states like Louisiana, hurricanes pose a growing threat. Despite advancements in government emergency alert systems, I noticed several years ago that many people either didn’t receive the warnings or didn’t think they were relevant. As a developer, I wondered, “Isn’t there an app for that?” However, I failed to find one that had all the important functions, so I went to work and built a new hurricane tracker app. More than 250,000 people use my free app, which delivers real-time, location-specific hurricane information, including wind velocity, storm trajectories and estimated landfall times. It also provides personalized alerts about these life-threatening weather conditions. I’ve heard from many people that using the app has helped them make smart decisions that kept them safe.

Apple’s App Store and Google Play have been instrumental in my app’s success. Within the first year, the app had 5,000 users and a tenfold increase to 50,000 by the end of the second year. Currently, over 250,000 users are actively using the app. This impressive growth was achieved without any marketing efforts. It all happened through users discovering the app when searching for information about hurricanes and safety. While policymakers’ concerns about the power of Google and Apple are valid, it’s vital to consider the potential impact of forcing changes to the app marketplace. The current system offers users a wealth of creative and important information and allows innovators to present their work to a global audience. Many apps, like mine, are free due to the efficient in-app advertising system, while Apple and Google ensure the security of user data and personal information. Imagine a marketplace with 10 different app stores, each with unique fees and policies. Developers, especially small ones like me, may lack the resources to navigate such a complex landscape, and the impact would limit the reach of their apps. If these new app store competitors charged for every download, many users might be reluctant to pay, reducing developers’ success and depriving users of valuable free tools. Smaller app stores might also spend less on data privacy and security, putting users at risk. The current app platforms and stores have enabled me to offer a trusted, free app that countless individuals use to ensure their families’ safety. The need for regulatory checks is understandable, but lawmakers need to weigh the potentially harmful consequences of their decisions on developers and users. I urge them to consider stories like mine and deliberate carefully on any changes to today’s app platform and marketplace system that, despite its flaws, serves many so well. T

A JAZZ FEST FOR IDEAS New Orleans Entrepreneur Week and New Orleans Book Fest have ambitious plans for a joint venture, and it starts this month with their first big collaboration. BY KIM SINGLETARY PORTRAITS BY EDMUND D. FOUNTAIN

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DID YOU KNOW?

THEMES FOR THIS YEAR’S NEW ORLEANS ENTREPRENEUR WEEK (MARCH 11-16) INCLUDE: Artificial Intelligence Climate Tech Culture Tech Founder Journeys Health Innovation For more information, visit NOEW.org.

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IT’S A COMBINATION THAT JUST MAKES SENSE

standouts (local and abroad) in business, culture, politics and investing with aspiring entrepreneurs in an event that exists “at the intersection of innovation and culture.” Last year, NOEW hosted over 4,000 attendees, largely from the Gulf South region. Also in March, New Orleans Book Festival (or Book Fest as it’s known) — since 2022 co-chaired by former New Orleans first lady and attorney Cheryl Landrieu and bestselling author and Tulane history professor Walter Isaacson since 2022 — takes over the Tulane campus for three days. This year it will include nearly 100 local and national authors, along with musi-

— like cured meats and olive salad, or beads and feathers. And just like with both these incredible pairings, the result is going to be like nothing you’ll experience anywhere except in New Orleans. Each spring, not long after Carnival season has been packed away for another year, New Orleans welcomes two more unique festivals — New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) and the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University. The largest entrepreneurial gathering in the region, NOEW (or ‘No-wee’ as it’s widely pronounced), has been a passion project of The Idea Village — a nonprofit ideastage accelerator program led by CEO Jon Atkinson — for 13 years. Every March, NOEW cultivates a week of keynote speeches, speaker sessions (210 last year), networking events and pitch competitions that bring together

Let’s move step by step towards bringing those two together. And so, this year they overlap and we’re doing joint programming so that we’re creating a new type of festival — Cathy called it a ‘thirdcoast type ‘festival — in which it’s both books and entrepreneurs and maybe clean energy. And it hopefully will continue to grow.

tion. For the first time, the events will not only share dates — NOEW will run March 11-16, while Book Fest runs March 14-16 — they will share programming, starting with a “crossover day” at Tulane University on the 14th. Both festivals will continue through the weekend at Tulane where aligned sessions will cover topics including business, technology, investment and entrepreneurship. But this year is only the first step toward a larger goal — creating a joint festival that marries both of their strengths and carries the global recognition of New Orleans megafestivals like Carnival and Jazz Fest, but for ideas and innovation.

“ YOU THINK ABOUT INNOVATION, CULTURE AND IDEAS — THAT BECOMES A BRAND THAT WE CAN EXPORT, AND SOMETHING THAT WE AS A COMMUNITY CAN OWN FROM AN EVENT PERSPECTIVE.” -JOHN ATKINSON cians, chefs and thought leaders. From its first to second years, the festival saw its attendance double from about 6,000 to 12,000 people. While the two nationally recognized festivals hosted a co-branded session at NOEW with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former CEO of AOL Steve Case last year, 2024 marks the start of a real collabora-

How did this collaboration start? Walter Isaacson: My wife, Cathy, is on the board of The IDEA Village. And she and I and Cheryl had been talking about the fact that there are a lot of synergies that could happen between New Orleans Entrepreneur Week and the Book Festival:

Jon Atkinson: When I look at kind of the macro framing, for putting all these great things together, you think about innovation, culture and ideas that becomes a brand that we can export, and something that we as a community can own from an event perspective. For a long time, New Orleans has been such a great destination for outsiders to come and host events, but this is a real effort to put together something that can be an opportunity for us to share with the broader world. Are you modeling this collaboration after any other festivals? WI: When I was at the Aspen Institute, Cathy and I helped host the Aspen Ideas Festival. And when Cheryl and I first started talking, one of the thoughts was that when we revive book fest, maybe it should become broader, like an Ideas Festival. JA: There’s a big event in Atlanta called Venture Atlanta that we’ve benchmarked against that draws 1,600 people every year; we went there this year and said, If Atlanta can do this, why can’t New Orleans? Jon, on the entrepreneurial ecosystem side in the wake of our first unicorn and a lot of success that’s happened in the past few years, what does the VC environment look like here? JA : By combining forces here, we’re able to put New Orleans on the map, nationally and globally, and to really start to build a brand around being a destination for thought leadership. We want people to come here to engage in startup investing, to engage in building innovative companies.

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I would say to the venture envi- are helping us build this. It’s worth ronment, it’s definitely gotten a noting that we wouldn’t have been lot easier to raise money in the last able to do that five years ago. few years. I’ve started to see the And then with that, the other big creation of professional venture news that we have as an organizacapital funds like Benson Capital tion is that we’re launching a $7 or Revelry Venture or Boot64 million fund that’s going to support Ventures, or Corridor Ventures our accelerator companies, and that have come on the scene in the then also fund idea pitch, which is last five years. And I think their our kind of capstone event that will efforts are all being amplified by happen Thursday at Tulane. the fact that we’ve been able to put some skins on the wall: We’ve had Where’s that $7 million some wins. We’ve had some big coming from? companies that have come out of JA: We’ve raised private capital New Orleans. And now the people largely from folks that were that were involved with those involved in the first wave of companies are starting to do their startups — so the founders of next thing, so you’re starting to see the successful exited companies that talent gets recycled. From a macro perspective, with — then we’ve matched that with funds through the LED SSBCI the rise of remote work and all the [State Small Business Credit Initiathings that have happened since tive] program. COVID, the national resources have become more fluid and more Let’s jump back to Book Fest. outside capital is flowing in. More networks are being built nationally, How did it get started? which makes this a perfect oppor- Cheryl Landrieu: The New Orleans tunity to plug into that ecosystem. Book Festival started in 2010 as an We look at this alignment with initiative of the city administration Book Fest and building this new when I was first lady. It started as venture summit as the evolution of the Children’s Book Festival, and our signature event in a way that’s over time we grew and included following what we’ve done with the adult authors as well. In 2019, we underlying organization and our weren’t involved in the administraaccelerator program. tion anymore and I talked to Walter about whether we could continue it The summit is a specifically and he had the idea that we could tailored event, though, so not possibly come to Tulane. We went to open to the public. them, and the university opened its JA: Yes. It’s about curated connec- doors and allowed us to use pretty tions, it’s an opportunity for compa- much every aspect of its campus. There’s great synergy between nies that are actively raising money. We’ve put the bullseye on compa- having the students here and having these national and local nies raising a million dollars or authors coming in and doing these more in venture capital, that’s kind presentations. Our event has always of our north star. We’re inviting been free and open to the public. those companies in and actively There’s no registration required. It connecting them with investors. has always been designed to be a It’s about getting deals done creative space for thought leaderand helping VCs build the habit ship for people to come and share of coming to New Orleans to see and connect over a wide variety of great companies. topics. We want to foster big ideas and thought leadership. Do you have any corporate entities involved with the 3rd How do you decide what your Coast Summit? lineup is going to be? Yes. Halliburton Labs, Benson CL: Walte r always has great Capital, Entergy, JPMorgan Chase thoughts starting from the get-go & Co. with the Tulane Innovation Institute, with Ochsner Ventures, on who we’re going to have and their range. I can remember the Key String Labs — those are our core host committee members that first author we ever had, and that

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started when Walter texted one day and said, ‘John Grisham wants to come.’ That’s when I realized this was going to be a bigger event than it had been in the past. WI: One of the problems we have today — which is a great problem to have — is so many people want to come; we get a lot of incoming requests. But we try to have a mix of ideas — fiction, nonfiction, New Orleans authors like Michael Lewis, have helped us draw writers and invite people. There are about eight or nine great book festivals in America, and New Orleans is one of them. How did you get Bill Gates last year? WI: I just emailed him and said, ‘People are interested in your two new books.’ He had written a book on climate and another on his philanthropy. I had his email because I had met him over the years, so I just said, ‘Come on down.’ You have also worked in partnership with different large media groups. WI: There are a lot of national media organizations that work

he really predicted what’s going on now. Students at Tulane are still talking about how Bill Gates gave them the heads-up that their generation will be the ones that connect AI to every other aspect of our lives. I love the line from the Bill Gates talk when he said, ‘AI made me go back to work at Microsoft.’ That made me perk up and take notice. Jon, how does NOEW decide on content? JA: We look at it from the lens of what are the topical themes that we need to be talking about right now? And if you’re building something in New Orleans, what do you need to know? Then we work backwards. We think about things like artificial intelligence, which is going to be a huge theme for us this year, sort of building on what we did last year, and what Book Fest did last year. Climate tech is also a major theme this year. I think if we point to the single biggest opportunity that this region has to lead, it’s going to be in climate tech. Halliburton Labs has been a major partner for us for the last few years and has really helped us start to think about how we create

“WALTER TEXTED ONE DAY AND SAID, ‘JOHN GRISHAM WANTS TO COME.’ THAT’S WHEN I REALIZED THIS WAS GOING TO BE A BIGGER EVENT THAN IT HAD BEEN IN THE PAST.” -CHERYL LANDRIEU with us to make this a success. We partnered with NBC News one of our years, and we had the “Today” show come with Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb. This year we’re partnering with The Atlantic — publisher of both the magazine and website — so that’ll add to the excitement. JA: And Walter, you mentioned Bill Gates, and much of his conversation in 2023 was around AI, where

a climate tech ecosystem between here and Houston that is differentiated nationally and globally. I think that’s a theme that we’re just going to keep pushing because if you’re doing emissions reduction work or carbon work touching the industrial corridor, you’re coming through here one way or another. And so, we have a question in front of us from an economic development lens: Do we want to capture

DID YOU KNOW?

A FEW FUN FACTS ABOUT THE NEW ORLEANS BOOK FESTIVAL AT TULANE UNIVERSITY – MARCH 14-16 Gayle Benson is serving as the 2024 honorary co-chair. The festival’s official 2024 poster was created by local artist BMIKE. At last year’s Family Day (Saturday) more than 5,000 books were distributed to area children. For more information, visit Bookfest.Tulane.edu.

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that, or do we want to let that value leave? CL: Let me do a quick emphasis on something Jon just said. Halliburton Labs has been a wonderful partner, because in the clean energy space, they’re doing pitch contests for the greatest companies around the country, and they’re going to make them part of the Halliburton Labs ecosystem. Likewise, United Airlines has a venture fund for clean energy, and they’re going to be partners as well. They’ve been a sponsor of Book Fest. I think all these things work together to get national companies focused on New Orleans and its potential, both intellectually as a generator of ideas, but also as a generator of startups and entrepreneurship. Did you collaborate this year when you were all coming up with content for the two festivals? CL: Oh yes. We’ve had a lot of conversations. We didn’t coordinate as much this year as I’d hoped, but we do have corresponding sessions going on. We’ll definitely be involved in each other’s business, for lack of a better way to say it, because we have a lot of crossover appeal to each other’s audiences.

is the real collaboration that we’ve been looking to have for a long time. It’s allowing us to bring in these larger resources that we just haven’t had access to. It really does feel like this is the kind of turning point moment — like it’s foreshadowing some really big things to come. Could each of you talk about what, specifically, you’re most excited about this year? CL: Well, speaking from the Book Festival, I think it’s going to be the incredible lineup that we were able to acquire this year. It’s two and a half days of chockablock programming on so many varieties of topics… We have a lot of New Orleans components that I think will be really exciting this year as well. Can you give any specifics? CL: We have some authors that have done work in New Orleans, both on music and the cultural side. We spend a lot of time with our panels, trying to make them as authentic and engaging as possible so that people can learn and grow from things that are already happening here in New Orleans. There will be a lot of New Orleans culture built into everything we do, which I think is what makes the national folks come in. We have

“THERE ARE ABOUT EIGHT OR NINE GREAT BOOK FESTIVALS IN AMERICA, AND NEW ORLEANS IS ONE OF THEM.” -WALTER ISAACSON

several — I don’t know if we’re WI: I’d like to give my wife some going to call them lifetime people credit because she’s on Jon Atkin- — but several authors who really son’s board and she really encour- enjoy coming back every year and aged me and then Cheryl to help participating in what we’re doing. put this all together. She’s really JA: The thing I get most excited driving a lot of the synergy. about is really the energy and JA: The Book Fest team has just the buzz and the opportunity for been amazing to work with. This all of these collisions. We like to

joke that what happens in the hallway is almost as valuable as what happens in the room. And that’s a really special thing about NOEW that’s become kind of part of our brand…I think people are going to be really impressed with the quality of the companies, both locally and those that are coming in from around the region. I think there’s a lot of really amazing stuff happening in the startup world right now. Patrick Comer, the founder of Lucid, likes to say that great companies get started in down markets. If you look at the national headlines, this is sort of a down market for startups. But what we’re seeing on the ground is, really exciting. I think it’s really a great foundation for what we’re going to be talking about five to 10 years from now. I think the last thing we’re also seeing a lot more emphasis put on diversity in tech. And I think you’re going to see that show up early this year. You know, Black-led VCs like Corridor Ventures and what Sabrina Short is doing with NOLAVATE Black and tying in the workforce development side, how you bring people into tech. So I think those two things are really going to be exciting… I think we’re sort of scared to say it, but at the top of the comparables really is a South By Southwest. That is the type of event that we want New Orleans to be able to own. And I think, well, we threw a 15-band music festival last year as part of NOEW. New Orleans knows how to do that if we can combine the sort of ideas, culture and innovation and create that gumbo. It sounds like the goal is really to cement that intellectual part, the business part, the ideas part of the region so that we’re known as more than a place to come and have a good time. Is that a fair thing to say?

Frankly, being associated with a university such as Tulane has been very helpful because there’s so many smart resources here that we can tap into. And thought leadership here is a regular occurrence. JA : We’ve also really made a concerted effort to bring all the local universities to the table. The Loyola Center for Entrepreneurship has been part of this, and Xavier’s actually doing a national HBCU entrepreneur week that’s going to coincide with what we’re doing here. Looking into the future, if this all goes as planned, what do you think a joint festival like this could mean for the region? CL: I think it can be huge. We’ve been talking with some of the city leaders about what that might look like, and what the possibilities there are now. We just have to make it happen. The potential of this would be game-changing for New Orleans if we can continue to get it done. JA: Personally, I am a reluctant event producer. I didn’t get into this to produce a large-scale event. But if it works, it means that we’re producing an event that then spills over the other 360 days a year in building the relationships that empower and lift up business in New Orleans, that help us compete on a national and global scale, that put us on the same level as an Austin or Boston or even San Francisco. I think the advantage that we have going forward is the future is about authenticity, and New Orleans has authenticity in spades. So, if we can create an environment that leads with that authenticity, but also doesn’t mean that people have to compromise their economic interest to tap into that, then the world is our oyster. T

CL: That’s fair… People have fun here. There’s no denying that. But we also want people to engage in conversations that help New Orleans grow and be the leader in the South that we all know we have the potential to be.

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A CHALLENGING

YEAR FOR BEER

In 2024, Louisiana’s nearly 50 craft brewers are contending with slowed growth and increased competition. by RICH COLLINS photos by JOSEPH VIDRINE

Biz New Orleans

March 2024

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DRIVE DOWN Tchoupitoulas Street these days and you’ll find the city’s unofficial “brewery row.” Starting Uptown and heading downriver, you’ll pass Port Orleans Brewing Co., NOLA Brewing Co., Miel Brewery & Tap Room, and Urban South Brewery. The Courtyard Brewery is only a couple of blocks away on Camp Street. That’s a lot of string lights, cornhole boards and picnic tables filling up what used to be unused or underused industrial property. Spread throughout the city are nearly 20 breweries of various sizes and styles that all have one thing in common: None of them existed in pre-Katrina New Orleans. What’s happened here, of course, is a reflection of what’s been going on around the state and the country for the last decade and a half. There are just under 50 breweries in Louisiana today and nearly 10,000 nationwide — both numbers are record highs by a long shot. In the late 1970s, by comparison, there were fewer than 100 American brewers in operation in all 50 states. Blame it all on former President Jimmy Carter, who legalized homebrewing in 1978 and set the stage for the explosion of the craft beer industry over the last half century, especially in the last decade. For beer fans, it’s a mouthwatering scenario. But all that industry growth, combined with the post-pandemic economy and evolving consumer tastes, has created challenges that are making the industry’s future cloudy — and not

In light of industry challenges, at least four high-profile Louisiana brewers have landed on the same strategy, which seems counterintuitive at first glance: They’re getting out of the beer distribution business altogether. In late 2023, NOLA Brewing Co. and Port Orleans Brewing Co. announced they would no longer be distributing their products to bars and stores in Louisiana. Earlier in the year, Bayou Teche Brewing near Lafayette made the same move, and Crying Eagle Brewing in Lake Charles set the trend a few years earlier. These brewers decided to turn away from distribution, with its rising costs and low margins, in order to focus on their higher-margin retail businesses. “It’s become so much more of a hospitality industry,” said Cary Koch, executive director of the Louisiana Craft Brewers Guild, which represents most of the state’s breweries. “The taprooms have to be the main source of revenue for a brewery in Louisiana.”

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Opposite page and left: Charles Hall, head brewer at Brieux Carré Brewing Company. Top right: a Brieux Carré patron shows off a pair of pints. Bottom right: the taproom in action.

in a hazy IPA kind of way. Just ask the owners of Faubourg Brewing Co., which shut down most brewing operations, at least temporarily, at its New Orleans East facility late last year. “We’ve never hit this number of craft breweries in the United States,” said one New Orleans brewer. “So, I do think that we might expect a commensurate response from the market, a natural pulling back.” The Brewers Association, a national trade group representing the industry, sees one sure sign of a slowdown already in effect. Its data suggests 2023 was likely the first year in the history of craft beer (not counting an anomalous 2020) that there was a dip in overall production. The trade group said the primary causes of this are “slowing demand growth, competition from other types of alcohol and a changing retail environment.” For these reasons, the association believes Louisiana breweries, like their counterparts elsewhere, need new strategies to reach new customers in the face of increased competition, rising costs and a downward trend in beer sales nationwide.

ROFITS ON TAP?

Biz New Orleans

March 2024

Below: patrons at the Parleaux Beer Lab. Opposite: Parleux bartender Jon Butts at the register.

Specifically, the four brewers swapped their state manufacturing licenses for microbrewery licenses. The change allows them to sell other types of alcohol in their taprooms, which all view as an essential ingredient of their special event business. “Adding wine and spirits allows us to open up our event and live music business to a broader set of people,” said Doug Walner, NOLA Brewing’s CEO and chairman. “And, on top of that, wine and spirits have great margins. I mean, that’s why people open bars.” Last year, NOLA decommissioned its 20,000-square-foot brewing setup, which had the capacity to produce 15,000 barrels of beer annually for sale in bars and stores around the region. The 16-year-old brewery replaced that with equipment a fraction of its size

to serve customers in its onsite taproom, a 12,000-square-foot space that features multiple rooms and a stage for live music. The company is rebranding as NOLA Brewing & Pizza Co. and is banking its bottom line on regular customers and an increase in special event business. “Wholesale is the lowest margin part of your business because you’re selling a beer at 50 cents to distribution,” said Walner. “It’s costing you 15 cents to produce, so you’re making 35 cents a can per 12-ounce beer. Well, what happens when I make a 12-ounce beer here and sell it here? I make six bucks because it doesn’t go through anybody. It’s a high margin.” Over the years, as brewers have competed to capture onsite customers, taprooms have evolved from the picnic bench aesthetic to become full-featured event spaces. “We have a big front patio and an inside taproom,” said Don Noel, Port Orleans president and managing partner. “We have a nice lounge area and not just tables and chairs. We have an 8,000-square-foot outdoor space. We have a 1,000-square-foot private room. We’re an event space and have so much more to offer.” Unlike NOLA, Port Orleans is maintaining its high-capacity brewing setup and hopes to keep it operating by contract brewing for other brands. Notably, the brewery is also in negotiations to open a second location across the Mississippi River in downtown Gretna.

EATHERING THE TRENDS AND GOING ‘BEYOND BEER’

A brewery’s approach to industry challenges may well depend on its size and ambition. Abita Brewing Co., for instance, has weathered many industry ups and downs during its nearly four-decade existence and is responding to current conditions by investing in equipment and infrastructure at its Abita Springs facility about 30 miles north of New Orleans. “We’re always long-term thinkers,” said Troy Ashley, a company executive. “We’re investing in a new capital packaging line to give us greater flexibility, both in package formats and throughput. We’re not going anywhere — we’re here for the long run.” A pioneer in the industry, Abita is the 35th biggest craft brewery in the nation according to the Brewers Association, and it reports production of more than 100,000 barrels of beer and soda annually, which is roughly half the state’s total output. Ashley said the brewer essentially plans to “keep on keeping on” this year. That’s even though the Louisiana beer market was down about 4%, which equals about 1.6 million cases, in 2023. He cites the post-pandemic dip in Louisiana’s tourism economy as one factor, since the company sells about 20% of its beer in and around New Orleans. “When there are fewer people coming into the city, that impacts things like beer sales,” he said. “And then there’s a shift in consumer preferences, where people aren’t drinking as much beer.” Ashley said the industry is very cyclical. “The younger generation isn’t drinking quite as much,” he noted, “but things always come around, both in trends and styles of products.” After Abita, the most successful brewers in the state include Parish Brewing Co. near Lafayette, Gnarly Barley from Hammond and Urban South. Each reports annual sales in the range of 20,000 barrels. Led by founder and president Jacob Landry, Urban South is tackling the market by expanding “beyond beer.” In 2023, the company collaborated with New Orleans rapper Juvenile to create Juvie Juice, a canned, spiked version of an Arnold Palmer (half iced tea, half lemonade). Then, at the end of the year, Urban South released Driftee, a non-alcoholic seltzer that gets its intoxicating power from hemp-derived THC.

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Customers can choose from three flavors: grapefruit, lemon lavender and tangerine ginger. “Beer is kind of where it’s going to be,” said Landry. “It’s in slight decline nationally. And craft beer is kind of at peak saturation, so the growth is coming from cannibalization within craft, and what they call ‘beyond beer.’ It started with seltzers and moved on to hard iced teas.” Landry said one of the benefits of the THC drinks is that they take much less time to make: Driftee spends 24 hours in a tank, versus beer, which takes two to four weeks. “It’s just essentially mixing ingredients and carbonating it,” he said. “So from that perspective, it can be just a lot more efficient use of equipment and a lot quicker production time.” Landry, who’s also the president of the Louisiana Craft Brewers Guild, recently attended a brewers’ conference, where he learned about some alarming demographic trends affecting the industry. “Young people are more promiscuous about what they’re drinking,” he said. “In our father’s generation, people were either beer drinkers or liquor drinkers or wine drinkers, but that’s definitely not the case anymore. Among the younger generation, there’s also a decline in alcohol drinking in general.” Landry said the average American drinks about 2.5 gallons of alcohol a year, and that number has remained steady. “The mix of what they’re drinking is what’s changing,” he said, “and it’s to the detriment of beer as a category more than anything else.” In contrast to Urban South, Parish Brewing Co. is keeping its focus on beer — and, in particular, high-quality brews that sell for a high price point. The company’s very first offering, Canebrake, remains a popular wheat beer, and Parish owner Adam Godley said Ghost in the Machine, an IPA, just might be the “most expensive barrel in the South.” He said his No. 1 customer for the product is the Walt Disney World Resort. Godley said he plans to expand his 25,000-square-foot operation. He just purchased 3 acres of land next to his existing site. Back in New Orleans, Second Line Brewing in Mid-City is operating on a smaller scale, but the brewery still distributes throughout Southeast Louisiana.

Left: NOLA Brewing Co. owner Doug Walner. Above: NOLA’s new brewing room. Right: grabbing a six pack of Juice Canoe pale ale.

Biz New Orleans

March 2024

Mark Logan, co-founder of Second Line, said the distribution model is working for the business he started with his wife in 2014. Notably, with NOLA’s exit from distribution, the brewery claims the title of New Orleans’ oldest distributing craft brewer. It produces about 2,000 barrels annually and distributes draft beer and cans throughout the southern part of the state. “I don’t think we have any secret sauce,” he said. “We just do what we do and try to hit all the basics between quality and controlling costs and retaining key personnel and all those things that every other business does.” Logan blames recent exits from distribution on rising freight costs and some “poorly written legislation” that continues to make limited self-distribution expensive and challenging for the state’s brewers. “It’s a tough business,” he said. “It’s high volume and low margin, and it has retracted. So you have to watch your capital, and try to avoid the ‘if you build it they will come’ mentality because the auction market for brewery equipment is just absolutely blowing up.”

TAY LOCAL

Most Louisiana brewers are neighborhood operations that don’t aspire to be the next Abita — or even Parish or Urban South. Some of these operate with microbrewery licenses, which means they don’t distribute their products to bars or stores, but others still embrace distribution — at a manageable scale — as a way to build their brand and bring in some extra dollars. Parleaux Beer Lab in Bywater and Brieux Carre Brewing Company in the Marigny are examples of two brewers that approach distribution differently. Both opened in 2018 and both

used a small distributor, Pelican Craft Brands out of Baton Rouge, to deliver kegs of their beer to a few dozen accounts around town. Pelican went out of business last year, and now Parleaux and Brieux Carre are devising different ways to get their beers into bars and restaurants. Parleaux co-founder Eric Jensen said he’s applied to take advantage of the state’s 2022 law that allows small operations to self-distribute their beer. Rules require him to spend money on a cooler, truck and other infrastructure, but he estimates the roughly $40,000 investment will be worth it. If the application works out, he’ll join Oak St Brewery as one of the first in the state to invest in “self distro.” “We’re pretty small, so we don’t have giant tanks like they have at Urban South,” said Jensen. “Figuring out what’s best for us is hard because it’s also a licensing thing. Part of our identity is being able to have families in our taproom and to embrace that

hospitality side of it. In order for us to have that license, one of the conditions is that we need to distribute.” Charles Hall, Brieux Carre owner, is going a different route. He said he’s negotiating with one of the two big distributors in town to get his brews into bars, but his plan is to keep it small, especially since the maximum capacity of his brewing setup is no more than 1,000 barrels a year. “We’re not distributing that much beer,” he said. “We’re not using distribution as a moneymaking part of our business. It’s really just advertising, getting our beer out there.”

REWERS MAKE THEIR CASE

For decades, small and independent brewers have been pushing for changes to state laws that they say don’t reflect the realities of the current marketplace. This may be especially true in Louisiana, which ranks last in breweries per capita among all states.

This page: Port Orleans Brewing Co.

Brewers want to be able to serve outside alcohol in their taprooms and still be able to distribute beer. And they want the right to transport their products from a primary facility to a satellite location themselves. Perhaps most of all, they hope for carve-outs to the industry’s franchise laws, so the same rules that apply to big national brewers don’t apply to small local ones. As they plead their case in Baton Rouge, they’ll likely be butting heads with the “big beer” lobby led by John Williams at the Beer Industry League of Louisiana, an influential lobbying group representing the state’s distributors. Williams and other representatives of the distributors are quick to point out that the laws that evolved since the end of Prohibition are designed to maintain public safety and create revenue for state and local governments. Another talking point: Brewers and their backers knew the laws of the land when they decided to invest. Williams said that, despite any disagreements about laws and rules, the Beer League tries to help craft brewers manage their relationships with distributors.

Biz New Orleans

March 2024

This page and opposite: Urban South Brewery

The brewers’ efforts sometimes pit them against their own partners: the beer distributors, who typically are big and powerful companies that act as essential middlemen between manufacturers and retailers (bars, restaurants and stores). Louisiana distributor Crescent Crown, for instance, is owned by Bill Goldring, one of the state’s few billionaires. Looking ahead to 2024, craft brewers have a long list of legislative wishes, but they’re also reluctant to publicly criticize the partners on whom they rely. The small brewers’ primary goals are adjustments to the “three-tier system” and the “franchise laws” that dictate the relationship between manufacturers and their distributors. The former requires manufacturers to go through a distributor to get their beer into bars or stores. The latter means, among other things, that a brewer’s relationship with a distributor has no term, which essentially means it’s a deal for life. “The beer laws are entirely business driven,” said one brewery owner who didn’t want to go on the record, although he was echoing a sentiment expressed by many. “These were the things that spread around the country because they’re really good for distributors. And who are the wealthiest families in every state? Beer distributors.”

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“We’ve worked with breweries in the states, anybody that’s wanted to go a different direction with their distribution agreements,” he said. “We’ve worked with the Louisiana Craft Brewers Guild because we want to make sure that they’re in a good place.” Urban South’s Jacob Landry, who’s president of the Brewers Guild, said the franchise laws make sense when applied to big brewers like Anheuser-Busch InBev, because distributors must spend big to create the infrastructure needed to get products into bars and onto shelves. But those same rules are too burdensome for the small guys. “The real problem today is that there’s so many small producers,” he said. “And the law is assuming that distributors are investing a boatload of money in marketing and logistics for the small producers. The reality is that’s not the case.” Landry and other industry advocates point to brewer-friendly changes made in other states, like North Carolina, which modified franchise laws so that some rules don’t apply to small producers. In Florida, a package of law changes in 2015 means brewers who distribute through wholesalers are permitted to sell other booze in their taprooms. In Louisiana, as well, past lobbying efforts have resulted in two breakthroughs. In 2015, for instance, the law changed to allow manufacturers to sell 10% of their total beer output or 250 barrels per month out of their tasting room.

“This was a transformational change that singlehandedly quadrupled the number of breweries in the state,” said Landry. “We’re still second to last in breweries per capita, but this was a huge change that was collaborative between the Beer League and the craft brewers. Prior to this, you really couldn’t have a tasting room as a small manufacturer, and tasting rooms are where small manufacturers make nearly all of their profit.” And, in 2022, self-distribution was introduced for manufacturers in the Pelican State. Landry said it’s a more limited version than other states and it will remain underused until it gets some updates. Stephanie Knott, co-owner of Bayou Teche Brewing, is among those who would like to see that happen sooner than later. “It would be so awesome to allow Louisiana microbreweries to have some distribution in our state,” she said. “Interestingly, microbreweries in a neighboring state like Texas, Mississippi or Arkansas are allowed distribution in our state. Louisiana law does not prohibit that, but it does prohibit Louisiana microbreweries from having Louisiana distribution.” Despite all these wish lists and worries, there still is plenty of reason for optimism among the state’s brewers. Independent brewers, in fact, are still responsible for one out of every eight beers sold in the U.S., according to association data, and consumers spend one out of four of their beer dollars on a product produced by an independent brewer. That’s why Louisiana’s brewers will keep blending malt, hops, yeast and water in creative ways — and advocating for their industry in the process. “We’ll be engaging with state elected members, educating them, and advocating for statutory adjustments beneficial to small business brewers,” said Cary Koch of the Brewers Guild. “Craft brewing embodies the essence of Louisiana small businesses, proudly creating, celebrating and manufacturing Louisiana-made beer.” T

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