New Orleans — Concerns about the Big Easy's ability to host meetings and conventions since Hurricane Katrina — and fears surrounding a recent spate of crime around the city — were largely allayed during Meeting Professionals International's Professional Education Conference (PEC), held here in late January.

The event was the largest gathering of meeting planners in the city since Katrina struck in August 2005. So the city knew that it had much to prove to the 850 planners who came for the three-and-a-half-day mix of educational sessions, supplier exhibits, and receptions.

By all accounts, the tourist areas of New Orleans — particularly the two-mile area between the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, the French Quarter, and Jackson Square, where most of the upscale business hotels are located — were open for business, clean, and buzzing with New Orleans spirit.

Noticeable to many attendees were some lack of store personnel, some shuttered businesses, and slower service in establishments — particularly restaurants. But no egregious issues appeared to be plaguing the city.

"It wasn't any different from the last time I was in New Orleans (for an MPI event in 2001)," said Lisa Mikita, assistant director of conferences and meetings for the Association of Legal Administrators, in Lincolnshire, IL. "Lots of stores were open, and some were closed, but that's how I remember it was the last time."

Other PEC attendees, who had been to the city some years before, saw an improvement. "Service levels everywhere were impeccable, above and beyond anything I have experienced in the city before," said Carol Krugman, director of client services for George P. Johnson, a North Easton, MA-based experiential marketing company. "Everyone in the local hospitality community wanted us to know how much they appreciated us being there; not even Noah's flood could have dampened the extraordinary hospitality we experienced."

Added C. James Trombino, executive director and CEO of the Metal Powder Industries Federation, in Princeton, NJ, "I've always felt good about the hospitality in New Orleans, but it seemed greater than ever before. The area around the convention center looked great, and Poydras Street was beautiful."

Following the devastation the hurricane wrought on the Morial center, the building underwent a $60-million renovation and reopened in February 2006 to small conferences; by last November, the facility was fully open. Another major venue, the Louisiana Superdome, two miles from the convention center, got a complete overhaul, to the tune of $180 million.

The Superdome reopened last September to host a pro football game, and during the MPI event, it hosted two dozen journalists for a luncheon on the field, complete with a gospel choir, a blues band, and video snippets on huge screens detailing the renovation process and the renewed ability of the facility to host trade shows and special events.

Meeting planners, meanwhile, didn't just observe the improvements New Orleans has made; they actively took part in making them through "voluntourism". MPI arranged to have city tours for attendees, the proceeds of which went to the Instruments A Comin' fund that replaces musicians' instruments destroyed in the storm. MPI also helped renovate Lafayette Academy Charter School, the largest charter school in New Orleans, while a donation of $50 from each participant went to the Instruments A Comin' fund. And a Habitat for Humanity project in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward saw more than 100 MPI attendees take up shovels to plant trees and shrubs around homes.

In early January, a number of MPI members grew concerned about attending the PEC when a wave of violent crime swept across the city.

In response, MPI sent members a letter assuring them that a number of measures were being taken to ensure the safety of attendees in New Orleans, including an increased police presence throughout the business district during the conference. "We told members we had no worries, because we knew what the city was doing to keep people safe," said Bruce MacMillan, MPI's president and CEO. "And we were right — we had 2,600 conferees see that New Orleans is back."

That was due largely to the hospitality community making clear that it values tourism, said Krugman. "As the taxi driver who brought me in from the airport said, 'New Orleans lives and dies by y'all. All the government money in the world can't take the place of all you lovely tourists coming back here again.'"

Contact Rayna Katz at rkatz@meetingnews.com

For ideas, tips, and tools for better meetings and events, get MeetingNews' weekly e-newsletter to your inbox.

This page is protected by Copyright laws. Do Not Copy