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With the inaugural Rally innovation conference in the books, organizer Elevate Ventures is already thinking ahead to next year’s event—but whether the state will help finance the event is still a question.
Rally, which took place from Tuesday through Thursday at the Indiana Convention Center, was designed to bring together startup founders, investors and innovators to spur Indiana’s tech and innovation ecosystem. The event included five pitch contests offering up to $5 million in total prizes, some big-name keynote speakers including former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, an expo area and dozens of panel discussions.
Indianapolis-based Elevate Ventures organized both the conference and the IN-Prize pitch contest. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. provided $1.5 million in support for the conference. Elevate Ventures serves as the IEDC’s venture investing arm, though the two organizations operate separately.
Elevate Ventures has already set the dates for next year’s Rally conference: Aug. 27-29.
The IEDC told IBJ Thursday that it hasn’t yet made a decision about financially supporting next year’s event, though Elevate Ventures CEO Christopher Day said he’s optimistic of the IEDC’s continued financial support.
Day said Thursday that the final attendance count for this week’s event will likely be between 3,500 and 3,600, with an estimated 60% of attendees coming from Indiana and 40% from other states or countries. He said official numbers should be available later Friday.
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The organization’s stated attendance goal was 5,000, but Day said he’s pleased with the actual turnout for the first-year event. “I feel great about it.”
Programming this year focused on six “studios,” or areas in which Indiana has—or aspires to have—significant activity: agriculture and food, entrepreneurship, hard tech, health care, software and sports tech.
Day said the lineup of studio topics might change next year, with possible new topics that could include investment banking, education tech and film innovation. It’s too early to say which of this year’s topics will return, he said, adding the lineup will “always be fluid at some level” from year to year.
In the big picture, Rally’s goal is to bring together people from different sectors in hopes of sparking business activity, while also showcasing Indiana to outsiders who might not know what the state has to offer.
Day said the event accomplished those goals. “I’ve personally had at least a dozen companies and/or investors from across the country, some from across the globe, that are saying, ‘We had no idea this innovation ecosystem existed in Indiana. And we are looking for a home to launch or expand our businesses or our business. And this [Indiana] is on the top of the list. And, are you doing this again next year?’”
Day also said some attendees from outside Indianapolis pitched the idea of adding Rally events in other cities. He said those requests took him by surprise, and it’s too early to say whether something like a Rally road show might happen. But he takes it as a sign that this year’s event was well-received. “It means we’re onto something.”
Several attendees said they had positive experiences at Rally.
Kim Blair, vice president of business development at Framingham, Massachusetts-based Re:Build Manufacturing, said Wednesday that he’d already made several promising business contacts. “It’s been a really fruitful conference for us in that regard.”
Blair was a speaker at Rally, and he and two colleagues also represented Re:Build at a booth in the conference’s expo area. Blair said one disappointment with Rally was that the expo area was open only Tuesday and Wednesday, not all three days.
Re:Build is a design, engineering and manufacturing company that does not have an Indiana presence but it would like to, Blair said.
Blair, a Nebraska native, earned bachelor’s and graduate degrees in engineering from Purdue University. He left West Lafayette after earning his doctoral degree in 1992. He said he’s glad to see the development that has grown up in that part of the state in the decades since then. “I would have stayed in that area if there was an economy there to give me a job,” he said.
Attendee Omar Atia, the co-founder and CEO of Evansville-based food company ZeroCarb Lyfe, said most of the other conventions his company has attended have been food-tech focused. He said he appreciated the chance to interact with people from a variety of industries at Rally. “There’s always unique ideas that come from fresh eyes.”
Day said Elevate Ventures plans to follow up on Rally’s momentum by reaching out to attendees and calculating the event’s economic impact in the weeks to come. Elevate Ventures also plans to track Rally attendees’ future dealmaking and business activities to get a sense of the event’s impact over time.
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Glad to see Elevate is investing in more out of state companies and not Indiana.start ups….