No Shots Required

When Tradeshow Week Editor in Chief Michael Hart asked me to go to New Orleans for the reopening of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, I was thrilled. My mom's response: "Do you need shots to go there?"

Unfortunately for the New Orleans tradeshow industry, my mom isn't the only person that thought — six months post-Hurricane Katrina — that downtown New Orleans was unsafe and/or still underwater.

During my four-day visit to the Crescent City in mid-February, several industry executives told me that they've been asked similar questions, to which they responded that downtown New Orleans is free of mold (according to tests by the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals and the City of New Orleans Health Department) and safe to visit — which I can attest to.

However, I did discover something infectious in New Orleans — optimism, especially among those in the tradeshow industry.

Despite the fact that many people in the industry suffered unfathomable damage to their homes, lost their possessions and were displaced for weeks or months or forever, their hopefulness about their city was ubiquitous — and, to me, surprising.

I did not expect New Orleanians to be cheerful.

It isn't that these people have put behind them the destruction and sorrow that followed Katrina. Many were very forthcoming with how their families, homes and businesses had fared.

Hoagie Herman of AVW-TELAV Audio Visual Solutions volunteered — on a Saturday afternoon, no less — to drive me through the horrifying ruins of the Lower Ninth Ward and Chalmette. Rick Compeaux and Sabrina Written from the Morial center walked me through the building, allowing me to photograph the spray-painted Cs still on some doors (which in September signaled to the Natl. Guard that room was clear of evacuees).

Dave Breland, another AVW-TELAV executive, showed me a slideshow of photos of his home, which was in the path of a tidal surge that swept through his neighborhood. His house still stands; however, another home (still attached to its concrete slab) floated six blocks before landing in his front lawn — where it remains today.

It wasn't just the optimism of industry people that shocked me during my trip — it was their hospitality.

Sure, reporters are often treated better than others and shown the best of the best. But the folks in New Orleans weren't only kind to me — they made me feel like family.

New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau President and CEO J. Stephen Perry invited me to his home to join him and a few friends in celebrating the Morial center reopening. Freeman New Orleans General Manager Bonnie Helmker insisted that her 20-something son accompany me to the French Quarter one evening.

Maybe I've lived in Los Angeles long enough to be a bit jaded, or maybe these New Orleanians just downright adore their city. They've decided not to let Katrina ruin their Mardi Gras, their convention business, their vitality — and by viewing this firsthand, I'm proud to be a new member of the New Orleans rebirth bandwagon.

I'm eager to visit the Big Easy again this year to support its small businesses, many of which are hanging on by threads. Heck, maybe I'll even coax my mom into joining me.

And don't worry, New Orleans, I won't complain if I can't get room service or even if housekeeping only gets to my hotel room every other day (as was the case during my February visit).

I'll give you some time — you've been through enough.