According to the most recent official figures, around 18 million tourists now visit New Orleans every year. And they spend nearly nine billion dollars while they’re here. Financial pundits keep telling us here in New Orleans that we need to diversify our economy, but nobody is telling that tourists and more and more of them…

If you’re a person of a certain age, you can amuse children by telling them stories of what it was like growing up in the pre-helicopter-parent era. Nobody took you anywhere in an SUV. If you had to go to soccer practice, you found your own way there. And during lunch and recess at school you…

If you’re starting out in business, or you’re at an early stage of development, an incubator will help you with your business plan, your strategy for growth, and other guidance. They may even introduce you to investors. But, like being admitted to a good college, getting accepted into an incubator can be competitive. And, despite the…

Have you ever fantasized about how you’re going to walk into work one day and tell them you’re quitting? You’re moving to Colorado and you’re going to grow pot. Shane Mutter was President of Doerr Furniture when he did something close to that. It wasn’t quite as dramatic, and it’s not exactly pot he’s growing,…

The Idea Village started at the turn of the 21st Century as a rebellious reaction to the business-as-usual cabal who, through an interlocking web of clubs, krewes, families, and cronyism, controlled most of the purse-strings in a then-shrinking New Orleans.  Six years later, in the wake of the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, The Idea…