Sep 5, 2023

Some 3,000 people descended on downtown Indianapolis last week for the inaugural Rally Innovation Conference from Indianapolis-based Elevate Ventures. The goal of the three-day event, which featured over 200 speakers—including keynotes from Peyton Manning and Earvin “Magic” Johnson—was to put Indiana on the global stage for cross-sector innovation. The man behind the event, Elevate Ventures CEO Christopher Day, says Rally is about “creative collisions.” “It’s about domain experts from across sectors,” said Day. “So, med device can be health care, hard tech, software, it can even be sports, tech, all in the same product. So we believe it’s really critical to figure out how to get people together that don’t normally don’t run the same circles in one place at the same time.” Some say Rally could become Indiana’s version of South by Southwest, which is held in Austin, Texas every year. The importance of holding Rally in Indianapolis, Day said, centers around the assets that the city and the state of Indiana have, though those stories typically aren’t being told. “We don’t talk about all of our number one rankings. We don’t talk about our arts and science and our trails and 43 miles of beach in Lake Michigan,” he said. “And this is just an opportunity to let the globe know about all the assets that exist here in Indiana, because everyone is looking [for] where’s the best place to go to live, work and play. And when you add up all the different assets, there’s no question in my mind, we ranked among the best in the world.” When it comes to innovation and tech, Scott Dorsey, managing partner for Indianapolis-based venture studio High Alpha, believes a conference like Rally can help boost Indiana’s reputation for connecting tech into other sectors, such as ag, logistics, manufacturing and life sciences. “This type of conference, I think, based on the collisions allows for more idea generation, more collaboration, and hopefully will just fuel more innovation across each of those sectors as it relates to technology.” But the collaboration doesn’t just happen at the conference, according to Dorsey. “There are venture capitalists from all over the country that are having private dinners, private events. So I think when you have an anchor event like this, then there’s all these kind of smaller events, [and] kind of the the orbit really kind of gets built out, and that’s really, really profound.” Another focus among the attendees of Rally is educating and supporting future innovators. Purdue University took a step forward in that realm with the April launch of Purdue Innovates, which university President Mung Chiang said is all about creating jobs, talent and innovation. “There are two parts,” Chiang said. “One is supporting inventors, filing more patents, licensed patents, and turn that knowledge creation into societal impact. And the other is to support entrepreneurs, faculty, students, Boilermaker alumni who are entrepreneurs.” Purdue is also working to enhance its presence in Indianapolis with its own independent campus that Chiang said is slated to start in July as part of the split of the IUPUI campus. But the university has already begun efforts in Indy, including partnering with High Alpha by taking up space in the venture studio’s Bottleworks location on Mass Ave, which will house executive education programs in the Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business alongside programs at Purdue Innovates. “It’s all about unique student experiences in the urban setting,” said Chiang. “It’s all about working with partners, especially business communities, companies, large and small.” You can view IIB’s full slate of interviews from Rally, including those that didn’t air on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, by clicking here . Story Continues Below