IDEA Week 2020, an annual event celebrating entrepreneurs, innovation and the incubation of new ideas, has been canceled and will not be rescheduled. This decision includes the Trevor Noah and OneRepublic performances, the Fighting Irish Esports Invitational tournament and the over 50 other events that were scheduled to be part of the week. The only event part of IDEA Week that will not be canceled is the McCloskey New Venture Competition, which will be conducted virtually.
IDEA Week is hosted by the University of Notre Dame, the South Bend-Elkhart region and various community organizations and businesses.
More than 20,000 people from over 30 states were expected to attend IDEA Week from April 18-25. Event organizers concluded that such a concentration of people would be unsafe due to the current and projected status of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Though it’s true that our 2020 event will no longer take place, the mission of IDEA Week — promoting the community-transforming benefits of entrepreneurship and innovation — will continue the rest of this year and in 2021 and beyond,” said Bryan Ritchie, vice president and Cathy and John Martin associate provost for innovation at Notre Dame.
Ticket holders to Trevor Noah, OneRepublic or IDEA Week, will receive a full refund. Event organizers said that because of the unprecedented number of event cancellations in the United States, it may take some time to refund tickets. They hope to complete all refunds by April 30, 2020.
For more information on IDEA Week and its cancellation, visit ideaweek.com.
Originally published by at ideacenter.nd.edu on March 16, 2020.