Bringing convention business to New Orleans

This writeup in the New Orleans CityBusiness talks about how the American Library Association convention in NOLA went off pretty well. All in all, the writeup is pretty positive, though I think I'm still with the 33 percent of people in our recent poll who would need a lot a assurances about safety and security before bringing a citywide to New Orleans, much as I love that town. Particularly now that the murder and crime rate are on the rise again. Then again, it's still well below what it used to be, so hush my mouth:

New Orleans is now averaging six armed robberies per week compared with 63 pre-Katrina and 8.9 murders per 100,000 people compared with 54.6 in 2004.

That may be, but what about the roving gang of transvestite desperados ripping off armloads of frippery on Magazine Street? (Click through to the article—it's a great read.)

Anyway, we'll have to wait and see how the city continues to handle its larger meetings and citywides, and how many organizations have attendees as adventurous as those librarians (I love librarians!). As UNLV hospitality professor Patti Shock says in the article above:

You might be able to bring the meeting planner down there and do a site inspection and convince them all is well but you can’t do that for every single attendee.





“If a meeting planner books, but instead of getting 1,000 people to come they only get 500, that’s a big hit for them and a big risk. Most people are going to hold off and wait and see.”