I loved the opening reception at Mardi Gras World (I think, but am not sure, that this is the right URL for the place). The chow was really good, especially the seafood (though I hear the kobe sliders with bleu cheese were pretty awesome, too) and the desserts. The venue was wicked cool—first we walked through a warehouse full of Mardi Gras floats, high school bands, and various stilt-walkers and other greeters, which was pretty cool (actually, kind of cold, as the weather has gotten a touch New England-y today). Then we got inside the building, where there was a great band playing. I'm not remembering her name, but there was a little girl, couldn't have been more than 10 years old, singing, who was amazing. I think I already mentioned the food was great. Needless to say, the company was beyond compare!
There was plenty of room for everyone, between the main room, the VooDoo Lounge upstairs (very cool decor), and the Grand Oaks "outside" room which I really thought was outdoors for a while, before we figured out the sky was a little too beautiful to be real. The whole thing was just really, really, well done. Congrats on being off to an excellent start, PCMA and New Orleans. Looking forward to the morning and getting down to the educational portion, but the kickoff was just great. Two big, very full thumbs up from this attendee!