In this episode of Innovate or Evaporate, host Toph Day sits down with Dave Neff, CEO of the 500 Festival, to explore how relationships, trust, and innovation shape one of Indiana’s most iconic civic traditions. Dave shares his journey from the Indiana Pacers to EDGE Mentoring, the Boilermaker Alliance, and now the 500 Festival, revealing how leadership, mentorship, and community engagement create lasting impact.

He also breaks down the full scope of what the 500 Festival actually produces: the Indianapolis Mini Marathon, which drew more than 33,000 participants this year including an 11-year-old who set a half marathon world record, the Indy 500 Parade presented by Lucas Oil, Kids Day on Monument Circle, a STEM-based education program reaching one-third of all Indiana fourth graders, and a 2,500-person volunteer corps with members who have served for decades.

Neff also addresses what he calls the loneliness epidemic among men in their 30s and 40s, the case for Indianapolis embracing the "Speed City" identity, and why feedback is the most underrated tool for anyone trying to lead or innovate.

Dave is also the host of Talent Scout, a podcast on the IBJ Media podcast network.

In this episode of Innovate or Evaporate, host Toph Day sits down with Dave Neff, CEO of the 500 Festival, to explore how relationships, trust, and innovation shape one of Indiana’s most iconic civic traditions. Dave shares his journey from the Indiana Pacers to EDGE Mentoring, the Boilermaker Alliance, and now the 500 Festival, revealing how leadership, mentorship, and community engagement create lasting impact.

He also breaks down the full scope of what the 500 Festival actually produces: the Indianapolis Mini Marathon, which drew more than 33,000 participants this year including an 11-year-old who set a half marathon world record, the Indy 500 Parade presented by Lucas Oil, Kids Day on Monument Circle, a STEM-based education program reaching one-third of all Indiana fourth graders, and a 2,500-person volunteer corps with members who have served for decades.

Neff also addresses what he calls the loneliness epidemic among men in their 30s and 40s, the case for Indianapolis embracing the "Speed City" identity, and why feedback is the most underrated tool for anyone trying to lead or innovate.

Dave is also the host of Talent Scout, a podcast on the IBJ Media podcast network.

Ed Carpenter has spent more than two decades competing in the Indianapolis 500 while simultaneously running the team that fields his car. The owner-driver of Ed Carpenter Racing discusses what it takes to survive and compete as an independent team in a sport increasingly dominated by manufacturer programs and private equity.

Carpenter traces his path from quarter midgets at age 8 to three Indy 500 pole positions, reflecting on the pivotal moments that shaped his career, including his 2003 Freedom 100 victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the decision to co-found ECR in 2012. He breaks down how the team operates with roughly 60 people, six engineers per car, and more than 100 sensors generating real-time telemetry data during every race.

The conversation also covers IndyCar's new charter system and what it means for team valuations and long-term stability, the evolution of driver safety technology from SAFER barrier walls to windscreens, the role Chevrolet plays as a technical partner, and why Carpenter believes pit stop athleticism is now as important as car setup. Carpenter also reflects on the sport's broader growth, including a 44 percent increase in television viewership since moving to Fox.

Follow Ed Carpenter Racing at ecrind.com and on social media at ECRIndy.

#IndyCar #Indy500 #IndyCarPodcast

Mark Miles, President and CEO of Penske Entertainment Corp., built a career out of pulling off events that other cities couldn't. From negotiating with Fidel Castro to land Cuba's athletes at the 1987 Pan American Games to restructuring global television rights for the ATP Tour to chairing Indianapolis's 2012 Super Bowl bid, Miles has spent four decades turning civic ambition into international spectacle.

Miles traces the through line of his career: a restless curiosity that led him from Senate campaigns alongside Mitch Daniels and Dick Lugar to the boardrooms of professional sports. He explains what made Indianapolis's volunteer-driven model for major events unlike anything else in the country, why fragmented television rights were strangling professional tennis, and how a billion-dollar rights deal with a sports marketing agency nearly collapsed into bankruptcy before a letter of credit saved the day.

The conversation turns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar, where Miles describes working alongside Roger Penske and the obsessive attention to detail that defines Penske's leadership style, from restroom paint schemes to full-scale styrofoam mockups of a yacht's interior. Miles also addresses how the sport is building community, both physically in the infield and digitally among fans who argue, connect, and pass traditions across generations.

His advice for anyone preparing for a high-stakes negotiation: walk in more prepared than anyone else in the room, think as big as the idea can realistically go, and never accept the first framing of a problem.

#IndyCar #Indy500 #InnovateOrEvaporate

0:00 Introduction and Guest Background

2:05 From College to Political Campaigns

6:45 Building Relationships Through Campaigns

8:10 Landing the Pan American Games

13:45 Negotiating with Fidel Castro

18:30 Lessons from the Castro Meetings

21:00 Running the Indianapolis Tennis Tournament

23:30 Restructuring the ATP Tour's TV Rights

27:00 Indianapolis and the Super Bowl Bid

30:45 The Indianapolis Volunteer Model

36:30 Joining Penske Entertainment and IndyCar

40:00 Fan Experience at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

44:30 Roger Penske's Attention to Detail

48:30 Rapid Fire Questions

Mariah Ivey, Director of Programs & Artistic Development, Madam Walker Legacy Center, and Founder of That Peace Open Mic, has spent her career building stages where none existed. Honored with a "Keeper of Culture" mural in Indianapolis by visual artist Ashley Nora in partnership with GangGang, Ivey speaks with host Toph Day about what it actually takes to earn that designation.

The conversation covers Ivey's five pillars of storytelling, including urgency, relevancy, creative rigor, personal connection, and impact, and how those principles apply far beyond poetry into marketing, product development, and community building. Ivey draws on her experience curating art spaces for the Jordan Brand during the 2025 WNBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis, performing at TEDx, and founding That Peace Open Mic to argue that authenticity cannot be packaged with the right language alone. It has to be lived off stage before it works on stage.

She challenges leaders across industries to stop moving transactionally and instead "move at the speed of relationships," a phrase that cuts to the heart of why so many community initiatives stall. She also makes the case that vulnerability is not a liability in leadership but a skill, one best practiced by getting into more art spaces.

Ivey's latest work appears in the fall issue of genesis: a literature and art magazine at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Pacers Sports & Entertainment is building far more than a basketball team. Under CEO Mel Raines and Chief Commercial Officer Joey Graziano, the organization is reimagining what a modern franchise can be: part sports business, part real estate developer, part performance company, part media brand, and part civic engine. In this conversation, Toph Day sits down with Raines and Graziano to explore how PS&E is helping reshape downtown Indianapolis through the ongoing evolution of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, a planned Ritz-Carlton, a Live Nation music venue, and a new Fever Performance Center designed to be the biggest and best purpose-built performance center for female athletes in the world.

They also discuss why the old definition of a “small market” is breaking down, how data and digital reach are changing the economics of sports, and why the Indiana Fever’s audience has become one of the most geographically diverse fan bases in professional basketball, with fans from all 50 states and 44 countries attending games last year. Along the way, Raines reflects on her path from the White House back to Indiana, while Graziano shares how he left a legal career to help rebuild a startup and ultimately help lead one of the most ambitious franchise transformations in sports.

From mixed-use development and women’s sports to global brand building, the NBA bubble, and the future of fan experience, this episode is a look at the innovative, multidimensional work it now takes to run a franchise at the highest level.

Julie Roe Lach spent 15 years at the NCAA running enforcement before becoming Horizon League commissioner. Now she's joining Pacers Sports & Entertainment as executive vice president, and her career arc explains as much about where college sports is headed as any single conversation can.

Roe Lach breaks down the three distinct layers of the NIL landscape: direct athlete deals, booster-funded collectives, and the new school-level revenue sharing capped at $20.5 million per institution under the House settlement. She explains how the Collegiate Sports Commission is attempting to bring legitimacy to third-party deals and why the jury is still out on whether it will work. She also addresses conference realignment, the future of mid-major leagues like the Horizon League, and the financial literacy gaps facing college athletes who are suddenly earning significant income without the infrastructure to manage it.

Beyond college sports, Roe Lach discusses Indianapolis's ambition to become the capital of women's sports, including the WNBA All-Star Game takeover, the Marvella youth sports campus planned near Fair Oaks Farm, and the Indiana Sports Corp's 2050 vision built around five pillars. She also reflects on what it takes to earn trust when leading organizations governed by multiple university presidents and coaches who are skeptical from the start.

Roe Lach earned her J.D. cum laude from IU McKinney School of Law in 2004 and is an active member of the Indiana bar.

0:00 Introduction and Julie Roe Lach's Background

1:45 Playing Basketball at Millikin University

3:10 Why She Went to Law School and Joined the NCAA

6:00 How NCAA Enforcement Investigations Worked

9:30 NIL: From Prohibition to the House Settlement

15:45 Collectives, the CSC, and the $20.5 Million Cap

21:30 Conference Realignment and the Future of Mid-Majors

25:30 From NCAA to Law Practice to Horizon League

28:00 Managing 11 University Presidents as a Board

30:15 Enrollment, Federal Policy, and Campus Pressures

34:00 Financial Literacy for College Athletes

38:00 Joining Pacers Sports and Entertainment

39:30 The WNBA All-Star Game and the BOSS Summit

42:00 Marvella and the Women's Sports Campus

44:30 Indiana Sports Corp and the 2050 Vision

51:00 Earning Buy-In From Skeptical Coaches

54:30 Rapid-Fire Questions

Kimberly Storin, chief marketing officer at Zoom, joins Innovate or Evaporate at Rally to discuss how Zoom evolved from an enterprise video platform to a household name during COVID and what comes next. Storin shares how more than 50% of people now start discovery through large language models, why earned media and brand building are having a renaissance, and how marketers have pivoted too hard into performance marketing. She also talks about Zoom's expanding product suite beyond meetings, including its AI companion, scheduler and docs tools. Plus, Storin reflects on her career path from crisis communications to management consulting at Deloitte to B2B tech leadership at AMD and IBM before landing at Zoom.

Mike Clem, CEO of Sweetwater, joins Toph Day for a candid conversation about what it really takes to scale innovation inside an established company without losing the culture that made it special in the first place. Mike shares his journey from small-town Indiana to Purdue to building early e-commerce systems, then joining Sweetwater in 2003 when the website was a $4M channel and helping grow it into the world’s leading music tech and instrument retailer.

They unpack Sweetwater’s relationship-first business model, why the company plays the “long game” instead of chasing quarterly optics, and how Mike thinks about innovation beyond just technology—through customer obsession, expertise, and incremental improvement. The episode also explores the rise of the creator economy, how AI is reshaping music-making, and what it looks like to keep a founder mindset even as you become the incumbent.

Innovate or Evaporate, an IBJ Media podcast, explores the relentless pace of change and the innovators who drive it! In each episode, we dive deep into the personal stories and sharp insights behind breakthrough ideas, cutting-edge technologies, and fearless pioneers reshaping our world, from billion-dollar startups to transformative social impact.