Y’all come back now, ya hear?

During the conference, most attendees stayed near the Convention Center and French Quarter areas. Luckily those areas are on higher ground and weren’t severly damaged by the hurricane. Unfortunately not all of New Orleans fared the same way. Monday afternoon I went with two of my friends, Jennifer and Donna, to see what devastation Katrina had created on the city of New Orleans. We drove through one of the heavily damaged areas, Lakeview (next to Lake Pontchartrain and the 17th Street Canal). Entire streets of homes were destroyed, with no sign of life except for FEMA trailers. One of the most dishearting sights was a school’s sign stating “School starts August 8, 2005.”  

Afterwards we attended the PLA President’s Program, featuring Anderson Cooper. As one who weathered the hurricane and the aftereffects in New Orleans, Cooper had many emotional stories to share with the audience. One of the vignettes he shared was about himasking his mother for career advice. She said simply, “Follow your bliss.” Even though that’s not what Cooper was expecting his mother to say, it’s a good mantra to emulate (and I hope we’re all following our bliss!).

I want to thank everyone for visiting my home state and hope the conference was everything they wished it to be.  From all the locals being excited we were there (usually no one notices us!) to the energy of the conference attendees, this has been one of my best conferences. As we say in Louisiana, “Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler! (Let the Good TImes Roll!)”