Newswise — BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- On Friday, May 16, alumni and friends of Indiana University's Kelley School of Business will gather at the Nasdaq stock market and celebrate the school's presence on the market's towering video monitor in New York's Times Square.

From 2:30 to 4 p.m., when the market closes, the Kelley School will be featured on the Nasdaq MarketSite Tower, the largest video building in the world. The 180-foot, seven-story screen also transmits live financial updates 24 hours a day to the millions of visitors to Times Square each day.

Idalene Kesner, dean of the Kelley School, and Donald F. Kuratko, executive and academic director of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, will host events in conjunction with the Nasdaq experience.

"Having our name up in Times Square, on a Friday afternoon, which is a very busy time, will be tremendous. It is a great image for Indiana," Kuratko said. "Think about what you normally would have to pay to be on a 180-foot tower for two hours in Times Square. The cost would be almost astronomical."

Nasdaq, one of the Johnson Center's financial sponsors, extended the invitation to the Kelley School. The exchange also supports the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, which is based at the school.

The Kelley School originally was scheduled to close the market on Friday but was bumped after the CEO of a company announcing an initial public offering asked to do so, which is a standard policy of Nasdaq closings. Kuratko and then Kelley Dean Dan Smith closed the market in March 2006.

The visit to the United States' largest electronic stock market coincides with the first joint meeting of the Johnson Center's East Coast, West Coast and executive boards. Board members come from Silicon Valley, the emerging Baltimore-Washington Corridor and other hotbeds of startup activity.

Among those participating will be John R. Gibbs, co-founder of Interactive Intelligence; Mrim Boutia, managing partner at MTM Careers; Andrew J. Sherman, partner of Jones Day; Louis G. Jordan, founder of Tympany Winery; Sanjay Subhedar, founding managing director of Storm Ventures; and Ken Kaczmarek, chief economic officer of Peloton Wealth Strategists.

The group will get a tour, hear how the market operates and see how Nasdaq remains in touch with its many trading sites.

"I think the behind-the-scenes look is always interesting. Even though they have a general knowledge about what Nasdaq does, speaking from my own experience, I think they will be intrigued by the depth of what they do electronically," Kuratko said. "It's kind of like being in the NASA space center, to see how they do it all."

With approximately 3,300 companies and a market value of over $8 trillion, Nasdaq lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It is home to companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology.