The wait is over! The Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration kicks off Friday!

About 88,000 people are expected for the 20-day event, organizers say.

The annual celebration of Black excellence in arts, entertainment, culture, an community begins Friday evening with an Ecumenical Service.

Other highlights include the IBE Film Festival, a Cultural Pavilion, a multi-day business conference, a health fair, the Music Heritage Festival Outdoor Concert on July 18 and the annual All-White Affair on July 19.

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Indiana is quickly becoming a hub for digital innovation, with over 9,000 tech firms calling the state home.

These tech companies are tapping into the potential of small and mid-sized businesses, creating a vibrant ecosystem in Central Indiana, said Emil Ekiyor, the CEO of InnoPower, a community development organization in Indianapolis. He is a contributor to WISH-TV.

In the last 10 to 15 years, Ekiyor said, Indianapolis has transformed into a tech hub in the Midwest, thanks in part to organizations like TechPoint and Elevate Ventures.

He said the Rally Cross-Sector Innovation Conference, to be held Sept. 24-25 at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis, is being touted as the largest of its kind in the country, further cementing the city’s status as a tech leader.

Finally, Ekiyor emphasized the importance of maintaining this momentum, noting that every business in the future will leverage technology, making them essentially tech companies.

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Sunday’s Carmel Pride festival is set to break the event’s all-time attendance record. It’s the fifth year for the Pride event.

The event is organized by volunteers between 12 and 18 years old in Carmel.

In 2021 a group of 15 Carmel high schoolers decided to put on the city’s first Pride festival. In its first year, 2,500 people showed up. The attendance has only grown since then.

The festival is the second biggest Pride event in central Indiana, following Indy Pride.

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