Honoring the Legacy of OPEN—And What Comes Next
For more than a decade, the OPEN Conference served as a powerful platform for connection, collaboration, and innovation. We’re proud of the vibrant community that emerged through OPEN, and we remain deeply grateful to the many educators, innovators, and ecosystem builders who helped shape its impact.
Last year, we announced the VentureWell Innovation in Action (VIA) Summit as the next evolution of this work—a bold effort to expand the reach and impact of what OPEN began. While we were excited to bring this vision to life in New Orleans in 2025, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the VIA Summit due to a range of institutional and environmental factors affecting participation across our network.
Though the in-person event will not move forward, the spirit of OPEN—and the values that guided both events—live on. We’re actively exploring new ways to convene our community and elevate the work happening across the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
We invite you to stay connected as we chart this new path forward—through future gatherings, virtual programming, and continued collaboration.
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Thank you for being part of the OPEN legacy. We look forward to building the future of innovation—together.