By George Vlahakis, Kelley School of Business

In mid-March, faculty at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business organized a three-day “virtual idea blitz” to address impacts of COVID-19 across the arenas of health, education and small business in communities and through changed purchasing behaviors.

Led by Regan Stevenson, an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship and the John and Donna Shoemaker Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship, and Matthew Josefy, an assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship, the initiative resulted in 21 ideas with corresponding pitches developed in five thematic areas: health needs, education, small business, community and purchasing.

Josefy and Stevenson documented their reflections in an article published in Business Horizons, an academic journal published at Kelley.

Impressed with the effort, the IU Office of the Vice President for Research funded a proposal to provide multiple mini-grants of up to $2,500 to accelerate entrepreneurial responses coming out of the “Idea Sprint Weekend Against COVID-19″ initiative. It complements other support from within the Kelley School.

A blog post about the virtual idea blitz and the mini-grants is available online.