Readers Close Book on New Orleans
Reading association leaves Big Easy, fills L.A.'s 2010 E³ dates
By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 9/4/2006
Sure, the Ritz-Carlton isn't opening until December. And a few areas of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center won't be ready until November. But the New Orleans hospitality industry will surely be back by 2010, right?
One group — the Intl. Reading Assn. — begs to differ.
The association has canceled its April 18–22, 2010, Intl. Reading Assn. Annual Convention in New Orleans, according to Kelly Schultz, a New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau spokeswoman. The bureau expected the event to attract about 20,000 people.
In its place, the IRA has opted for May 2–6, 2010, dates in Los Angeles, filling a slot left open by the transformation of the 60,000-attendee E3/Electronic Entertainment Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center into a much smaller hotel-based meeting.
Melanie Hughes Younger, the IRA's director of professional meetings and conferences, declined to confirm that the 2010 event was pulled from New Orleans.
Instead, Younger said, "I can confirm that our 2010 show is being held in Los Angeles. ... I really don't want to say anything at all about New Orleans. I think that city has had enough. I don't want to give any negative attention to the city."
Schultz said the IRA "made a blind decision" because it didn't send anyone to the city to do a site inspection "to see for themselves. ... They felt that the (post-Hurricane Katrina) recovery was not far enough along."
Schultz added, "About 95 percent of the people that have come here and have done their site inspection make the decision to keep their meeting in New Orleans. Unfortunately, this group did not do that."
The IRA annual convention took place in Chicago this year, with more than 350 exhibitors. It will travel to Toronto and Atlanta in 2007 and 2008.
Come 2009, the association will hold two regional shows — at the Phoenix and Minneapolis convention centers in February and May, respectively — instead of one national show. The group decided to change the format for that particular year because the show has outgrown the Minneapolis center since it was booked.
Younger said she expects the 2010 event in Los Angeles to attract about 25,000 attendees. The group had already booked its 2015, 2022 and 2026 conventions in the city.
Younger said, of Los Angeles, "The city has really done an excellent job of gearing up for convention business, and they've made it really attractive for shows of our size to come there now."
She said the L.A. Live project, expected to open in 2010, was another reason for choosing Los Angeles.
The development, a few steps away from the LACC, will be a 4 million square foot, $2.5 billion sports and entertainment district. Marriott Intl. is developing an 876-room Los Angeles Marriott Marquis as the center's headquarters hotel, along with the 124-room Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles and 216 residential condominiums. It will also include the 7,100-seat Nokia Theater Los Angeles; a music venue, Club Nokia; a 15-screen Regal Cineplex (to include an 800-seat premiere presentation theater); the Grammy Museum; and restaurants, nightclubs and cafes.
LA Inc., the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau, continues its effort to fill E3's annual May dates. According to Michael Krouse, the group's vice president of convention sales, it has booked software provider Bentley Systems' Bentley Empowered Conference to replace some of the lost E3 business in May 2007.
The Morial center in June hosted its largest post-Katrina event, the American Library Assn. Annual Conference & Exhibition with about 17,000 people. The center next month will host the annual meetings for the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, American Society of Human Genetics, American College of Emergency Physicians and American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
