Reopening the Big Easy

Shortly after he celebrated his third anniversary as president and CEO of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau, J. Stephen Perry faced perhaps the greatest challenge of his career head on: Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Working on little sleep, Perry led a group of devoted staff members — most of whom lost their homes and were scattered around the country — in assuring customers that they remained the bureau's No. 1 priority.

Now, with an outpouring of affection and support for New Orleans from the nation's tourism community, Perry is eagerly moving forward to shape the city's rebirth, optimistic that New Orleans' 12 Tradeshow Week 200 shows and others will continue to fill the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center calendar and the city's 38,000 hotel rooms.

From Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitchell Landrieu's office at the Capitol Annex in Baton Rouge, Perry spoke with TSW Senior Assistant Editor Rachelle Crum, as the Gulf Coast awaited the landfall of Hurricane Rita. Perry recalled the past month's struggles and detailed how he expects the Big Easy to energetically rebound from the most devastating natural disaster in the nation's history. With the help of patriotic tourists, the tradeshow industry and a little party called Mardi Gras, Perry is determined to reintroduce the city to the world.

Question: When did you leave New Orleans to flee Katrina?

Answer: I left the night the storm came (Aug. 28). Our emergency plan requires that we establish in an area where we have complete Internet and telephone, both land and cell communications. When the storm came and it became apparent that the magnitude was such that we would be knocked down completely in New Orleans, we decided to move and literally race ahead of the storm to the west.

Q: Where did you go?

A: We went to Baton Rouge and, as power was knocked out there, we moved to western Louisiana, just outside of the hurricane zone so that we had full Internet and landline communications, because the key for us was to maintain our Web site. Our emergency plan had already dictated that the Web site is hosted out of state in case of such an event. We were one of the few Web sites in New Orleans that was actually active. I personally updated the Web site every two hours during the course of the storm and the flooding.

Q: How did you maintain the stamina to do that?

A: At that point, you're running on adrenaline. Your home and everything you know is in real danger, and you realize that you are the critical link to tens of thousands of professional customers and millions of leisure tourists. Not only the entire professional tourism community, but most of the national media began using our site for updates. It was clear (we had) to keep doing it.

Q: Did you get any rest in those first few days?

A: I tried to sleep at least three hours every night. It catches up with you after a while though.

Q: Do you believe the bureau was adequately prepared for such a devastating disaster as Hurricane Katrina turned out to be?

A: We were extremely proud that the convention and visitors bureau had a formal emergency plan that was immediately effective. We have offices in Chicago and Washington (D.C.), and they were operational the entire time.

When it became apparent that we would have to initially cancel conventions from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, we personally contacted every customer of the city (within a) 48-hour period. The following week, when we made the decision to extend the cancellation period until March 31, within 72 hours a member of our team had contacted each customer personally.

We made a strategic decision immediately that our No. 1 obligation was the success of the meeting or convention or tradeshow of our customers. We wanted to make sure that no business partner of ours would have their meeting compromised in any way.

Q: How is it that you wound up in Lt. Gov. Mitchell Landrieu's office as your temporary headquarters?

A: The lieutenant governor is a close friend, and he and his staff reached out to us immediately. They enabled us to immediately set up 10 offices on the same floor with the lieutenant governor himself. In a time of crisis like this, when you're dealing with financial issues, insurance issues, governmental issues and media, being able to be established along with the lieutenant governor was simply critical. We're forever in his debt for that opportunity. And it obviously kept our costs very low in a difficult time.

Q: With employees temporarily scattered around the country, how have you maintained their morale throughout this time?

A: We have conference calls almost every day. We have tremendous passion on our team for the city.

Their performances have been extraordinary, especially considering that four out of six of my directors and vice presidents and nearly 75 percent of my employees have lost their homes. I have at least three or four sales managers who have literally no home or possessions of any kind (and) who are in here working with customers. That's an amazing level of dedication, and they have done it with smiles on their faces. It has been a pleasure to lead this team.

Q: According to your Web site, you still haven't heard from three employees. Is that still the case?

A: Yes. Two are part-time and one is a young man in our mailroom, and we simply have no idea where they are. I used our Web site to set up a personal e-mail site, and we eventually heard from everyone except those three. We've put out feelers everywhere we can. We're assuming that they must have ended up in a shelter or don't have Internet access and would not have seen a way to get in contact with us.

Q: Is it true that it wasn't part of anybody's emergency plan to shelter evacuees inside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center?

A: That is my understanding. We were never aware of an evacuation plan that included the Morial center. And apparently neither had anyone else, because they didn't provide them with any food, water or transportation.

Q: Did Morial center President and General Manager Jimmie Fore and some of his staff members remain inside the center during the hurricane and the aftermath?

A: Yes, there were five of them that remained. They maintained their position in Jimmie's office throughout the ordeal. As soon as the evacuees were able to be taken care of, they immediately jumped in with the Natl. Guard to secure the building.

Q: What kind of damage did your office sustain?

A: About a year and a half ago, we moved into a new 70,000 square foot, five-story building on St. Charles Avenue. Most of the windows and the glass front of the building were blown out. The full force of the storm destroyed my office and some of the conference rooms along the front, and caused some water damage.

The Oklahoma Natl. Guard is using our building as their headquarters, and they stabilized the building. We sent a team in to board the windows up and seal them until the glass can be ordered. We already have crews cleaning it, and it now has full power.

Hopefully within the next month, it will be ready again, but the question for us is: Will there be efficient city services for us to be able to return soon or would it be later in the fall?

Q: What is the status of the Morial center?

A: There was wind and water damage to some of the meeting rooms on the second floor. There was very light window and glass damage. There was some structural damage to the roof, which has been repaired and stabilized already. There is the possibility of additional roof damage that is being further evaluated.

Literally, every inch of every surface inside the center is being cleaned to hospital standards. We are ordering all new equipment, all new furniture. When the center is ready to reopen next year, it will look better than the day it opened.

Q: When do you expect the first tradeshow at the Morial center to take place?

A: I would say that it will be late spring. Many customers are nervous right now about the opening date. We're working with every one of them, in that second quarter, to make sure that they're comfortable and we're on track. Our team is talking, almost every day, with groups.

Q: Before the hurricane, Morial was scheduled for a $315 million, 684,000 sq. ft. expansion, including 524,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, to be completed by January 2009. What is the status of that project now?

A: We're proceeding to move forward. The bonds have already been sold. We were right at the point of beginning construction; that's going to slow down a little bit right now.

Q: What about New Orleans' hotels?

A: I think 95 percent of the hotels will be restored to pristine condition, or conditions superior to before the storm, by Christmas. We expect that roughly 80 percent of our properties will be fully functioning and servicing relief workers in the next 30 days. We have probably 15 hotels already up and operating.

Q: How have your customers reacted to the show cancellations?

A: They have been wonderful. The overwhelming majority of customers are not only telling us that they can't wait to get back to New Orleans, but that they're going to attempt to send smaller meetings here as well to be part of the recovery effort.

One of the things that has been very gratifying to us is the outpouring of affection about New Orleans. It buoys our spirits every day to get the kind of letters and correspondence that we've gotten.

And remember after 9/11, the articulation in New York that it was the patriotic thing to go back to New York? We think that the same thing is going to happen in New Orleans. Many corporations and associations will make this as a patriotic, as well as a business, decision. We think that the future of the tradeshow industry here looks extremely strong.

Q: How will your marketing efforts change?

A: What the (marketing) campaign will be is a re-imaging of the facilities with new visuals of the renovations in the (Morial) center, and the updating and renovations in so many of the hotels. The campaign is going to be one of reaching out to the customers that have been a part of this city for many, many years.

Look at Charleston (S.C.), look at cities in Europe after World War II that were nearly destroyed, and you see tourism as something that was very important in the rebuilding of those cities. Here, you're going to see that tourism and conventions and meetings are going to lead the recovery here.

We have MPI (Meeting Professionals Intl.) scheduled here for January 2007. They reaffirmed that they are coming, and we are ready for them.

Q: When do you expect New Orleans' tradeshow industry to fully recover?

A: We think by the middle of next year we'll be fully going.

Q: New Orleans had 12 TSW 200 shows in 2004. How many of those do you expect to return?

A: We expect every one of them to return — absolutely.

Q: Do you expect major changes regarding your annual CVB budget because of the disaster?

A: It's $12 million, and that does not include our tourism marketing dollars. We have a sister organization that does consumer advertising, which is another $7 million.

That is in a little bit of duress right now, because our members are in very difficult shape. We're working on alternate funding sources to help us over the next 24 months. We'll be working with our congressional delegation, Travel Business Roundtable and the Travel Industry Assn. of America to influence all of Congress to get the largest economic sector in the city back on its feet quickly.

Q: According to a Washington Post poll, fewer than half of all New Orleans evacuees living in emergency shelters in Houston said they would move back home. How will this affect the tradeshow industry there, specifically the labor pool?

A: I don't think that there's any question that those people that work in the tourism and hospitality industry will come home. We think that there will be a few challenges in the labor pool in the short term, but long term, we think it's going to be extremely strong.

Q: Where in New Orleans do you reside?

A: I live right near the convention center in the warehouse and arts district, in a big loft. I am one of the few whose home came through virtually undamaged.

Q: Will Mardi Gras 2006 take place in New Orleans?

A: We're going to have one, unequivocally. All of the floats came through in great shape. It's going to be a reaffirmation of our culture and who we are and the things that we love. (The city will) plan a small, but absolutely joyous, Mardi Gras to announce to the world that we're on the way back.