Kumbaya

I arrived five days ago with my preconceived ideas of what New Orleans would be.

Today I came home with a totally different impression.

The New Orleans I now know is alluring, taunting us to re-think our future. It’s drawing us in with tax incentives, concierge services and start-up funds. (http://gnoinc.org/incentives/incentive-finder) 

This transformation is the result of one of the most brilliant, most perfectly executed city marketing campaigns I’ve ever witnessed . . . up there with “Virginia is for Lovers” and “I Love New York!”. beNOLAbound, New Orleans’ creative, out-of-the-box attempt to affect its public perception has truly been a success.

{ First day brought ‘over 100,000 impressions!’ was the rumor circulating. Not bad for a first-time experiment. }

Remember going to overnight camp when you were a kid? Your parents dropped you off with kids you never met. It was awkward that first few hours, but within 24 hours you formed bonds that lasted a lifetime.

That’s what these folks in New Orleans created, a camp for us adults. They invited 27 adults from all over the US to come to their city for a fact-and-fun-filled five days. They scheduled our days from dawn to midnight, leaving us no time to get homesick. The food was great, the weather ideal. We even had to write home about our experiences.

Their experiment in docu-tourism worked. It was a brilliant success. Four or five in our group made the decision to either move or open a branch office there. I’m just back in my Atlanta office and I’ve had seven phone calls asking for details.

New Orleans now has a group of people who came to their city and fell in love with it. We drank the Kool-Aid, eaten the s’mores. Between now and the next time we meet, we’ll tweet, blog, facebook – we’ll delight in sharing our ‘camp’ stories.

We might even send our children to college in New Orleans, not to mention our grandchildren.

Our beNOLAbound group plans to meet back in New Orleans mid-October for the release of our documentary which will premier at the 2012 Film Festival.

Until then, Kumbaya, my friends. Kumbaya.

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The song, Kumbaya, (led here camper, Stan Gill) usually sung around campfires, is associated with human and spiritual unity, closeness and compassion. How fitting.

posted: March 19, 2012

New Orleans: The Biggest Secret in America

Upon receiving the phone call from the doctor telling me that my husband had cancer, I immediately called my friend Kim, a breast cancer survivor.

“Welcome to The ‘C’ Club, she said. “I wish everyone could belong. It will change your life in the greatest way. You’ll never be the same.”

Like many of us who have faced such fear, whether it be cancer, financial ruin, or a hurricane know exactly what she means. It does change your life forever. You become acutely aware of what’s important and what’s not. You quit scratching to the top for the largest car or the fanciest house. You slow down. You choose a career that fulfills you. You take time for your family. You live each day as if it could be your last.

Imagine an entire body of people going through this same catastrophe together. Imagine all class structures immediately on the same level, all struggling to survive. Imagine a whole town passionately working to rebuild the place they call home.

Yep, these people down here party hard. But they also are working hard to rebuild their city. They want the world to know that they are trying their very best to fix the crime, the educational issues and the work opportunities.

They also want the world to know that they need help. They desperately need web developers here to help write the code for their new ideas. They need engineers that can help them put their ecosystem back in place, the right way. They need scientists and film producers, teachers and shop owners to support the children and neighbors. And they are welcoming them with open arms.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet with the city’s top leaders, artists, entrepreneurs. I’ve heard it and felt it firsthand. This is the place to be. this place is on fire. This is the next greatest opportunity if you’re open to it.

Call me. Write me. I can’t wait to share the good news of what I’ve learned this past week.

Yep, in my opinion, I think New Orleans is the greatest secret in America right now.

posted: March 18, 2012

New Orleans: The Real Story

In the three days that we’ve been here we’ve sat in the finest of the city’s boardrooms. We’ve watched basketball from best box in the New Orleans Arena. We’ve dined on rooftops at sunset, overlooking the city at its best.

The city’s top leaders have been with us almost 24/7, making sure we’ve heard the right stuff, the success stories. We’ve been ushered around the city to visit businesses of those who have made it big. We’ve heard over and over again from those business owners taking advantage of the 35% and 50% tax incentives, the real spark setting this town on fire financially.

We’ve seen evidence of how New Orleans’ film industry is exploding, putting it at #3, behind only NYC and Los Angeles. Pretty impressive for a scrappy little town.

Yesterday we met with the police chief, and high level representatives from the Mayor’s office and the school system. Our group lobbed tough questions at them, questions about the crime, education, and economic development. But they, too, were well prepared, in sync with their answers. All painted a rosy picture, a bright future for this community. “We’re turning this ship around.”

Not until late last night did we hear the real story of New Orleans.

Five of us boarded the bus for an early return to the hotel. It was nearly ten and we opted for a good night’s sleep instead of a night on Frenchman Street. Two among us had witnessed Katrina firsthand, one had lost everything except the clothes on her back. Both left her hometown – for Houston, the other for NYC. Neither have returned.

As these two women shared their painful stories with us the bus driver pulled up to the hotel and parked. He put it in park, then turned his whole body around to face us and said, “If you want to hear some real stories, I’ll tell you. I drove the bus.”

He went on and on with gruesome details of how bodies were never found. He told us about the 80-year-old woman who begged to get off his bus. Every dime she owned was under the water-soaked mattress in her flooded home. He got almost angry as he spoke of the political corruption that prevented the city from getting its fair share. This man had so much he wanted us to know. He wanted us to know the real story of this town.

We asked him the same questions we’d asked the Chief of Police. We asked him how he felt about the new charter schools, the new initiatives happening around the city.

His answers were optimistic too, but in a very real way. This man, our bus driver, filled with passion for his city, shared with us the most compelling, the most real, the most unpolished story about how his city survived one of the most horrible events ever to hit our country. He expressed cautious hope in the new city leaders, in the new charter schools. He shared his ideas for how the leaders could improve the problems.

I hope those in power, the thought leaders of this city, will listen to the ideas of bus drivers and its teachers. I pray they’ll include the shop keepers and the those who starch their shirts.

Because it’s those folks who’ll really sell this great emerging gem of a city. They are the ones who’ll take the real story far and wide.

posted: March 17, 2012

The NEW Orleans

In a commencement speech, Steve Jobs tells the 2005 graduates of Stanford that, “death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make room for the new.”

I bring it up again because of what I see here in New Orleans. Out of all the devastation of Katrina a new generation has arisen. These young folks have a fervor, an excitement like we had in Atlanta in the early 80s. The tide seems to have changed in this town. The old guard appears to have lost the reins on this city.

All day long I heard story after story of transformations that occurred because of Katrina. One person came here to help after the storm. She loved this city and its people so much that she quit her job back home and stayed here. A successful stock broker closed up shop after the storm and followed his passion to become an artist. Others tell stories of how they turned from amassing net worth to seeking a joyful, enriching life. This place was changed by Katrina.

New Orleans is drawing scientists, tech gurus, social media professionals, lawyers, artists from all over the world. I’ve heard over and over again of young people returning to their roots, or tired of the rat race in New York or LA. Good, smart, creative young people are flocking this city. It’s very infectious.

Forbes named New Orleans #1 on the list of “America’s Biggest Brain Magnets” for attracting college kids. It was included in the top 10 cities of “Best Places to Live and Work for Young Professionals.” Add to that twenty or so Top 10 listings in “Top Economic,” “State of the Year,” “Top City for Young Entrepreneurs,” and the list continues.

Good has surely come out of a horrible disaster. It really has.

posted: March 15, 2012

Day One

I arrived into New Orleans a little after 9am yesterday morning. Luckily I slept the entire flight. Lucky because, from the minute my feet hit the pavement in this town, I have been moving. A bit indicative of what’s going on in this town.

There’s so much happening here. Young people everywhere. Young, hip, smart, creative ‘kids,’ I’ll call them, most half my age. I love it. The energy, the excitement, the love for their city is overwhelming.

These young folks love their city. At a very young age, they have been charged with reviving it after Katrina. And they are bringing it back with a fury, with an entirely different vision than what you and I remember this town being.

New Orleans is electric.

We all know New Orleans for its music. Yes, there are photos of trumpeters in every store window, in every logo. It’s food as well . . . its of signs advertising po boys, crawfish, even alligator.

But what people don’t see is the swell of new ideas this town is fostering. We will attend a program later this week which is the culmination of Entrepreneur Week. The event, called “The Big Idea,” will bring 1000 New Orleanians to ‘invest’ in their entrepreneurs. Brilliant concept. Each of us will be given a $50 chip. We are to mill amongst 19 of the brightest entrepreneurs in the city, listen to their pitches, then award our $50 to the one whose idea has the greatest chance to come to fruition. The one with the most chips wins the big prize of $100,000 in start-up money. If there is a tie, there will be a ‘pitch-off.’ How cool is that! Not only for the entrepreneurs, but those of us in the audience.

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So, after I landed I was whisked away along with three others in this NOLAbound program. Alicia, who manages an arts non-profit in Brooklyn, Arabella, an incredibly talented artist from Cleveland, and Jonas, a scientist, comes from Galveston. I’ve read about these folks for two months now, and it’s so fun to finally meet them. We were so busy getting to know each other that we missed the first sights of the city.

Once we checked in, dropped our luggage, we were instructed to go next door where they a film crew interviewed us as part of the documentary. From there we were taken across the street, to a beautiful circle park, where we were each photographed.

Once we finished we had the afternoon on our own. I put on my walking shoes and took off.

I walked from my hotel to the downtown district.  From there to the warehouse district.

Ooops, it’s 7:27am and I have to be showered and shaved and downstairs in 33 minutes. And I gotta look cute.

Stay tuned.

posted: March 15, 2012

New Orleans, here we come

I’m nervous.

Tomorrow morning I board a plane to New Orleans for probably one of the most exciting opportunities of my life. I have a sneaking suspicion it will be life-changing.

The 27 of us chosen to participate in the NOLA bound project will come from Boston, Houston, Cleveland, New York, San Antonio, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Galveston, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Nashville, New Orleans, Denver, Kendall Park (near Princeton), Orange County, CA, and even Kolkata, India.

It’s truly a great honor to have been chosen. But with it comes a great feeling of responsibility. Each of us has been charged with the duty to report, honestly, what we find. Our group has the opportunity to be change agents, to broadcast the life, the electricity, the energy that is on fire in New Orleans. Or we could kill the city by our reports of its crime, poverty and educational problems.

Quite a gamble for a city to take.

But then again, New Orleans has taken gambles its entire life. Those gambles, those chances, have defined ‘The Big Easy’.

I was surprised to find that in September of 1722 a great hurricane destroyed the entire city. In 1788, the Great New Orleans Fire destroyed it again. In 1794, 1882, 1909, 1915, and again in 1965 hurricanes and fires did a number on this city.

And of course, we all remember August 29th of 2005.

These misfortunes didn’t seem to break this town’s spirit. In fact, they seemed to fuel them. New Orleans has a resiliency, a spirituality, a soul, like no other city in the world.

All I can say is, ‘there’s something magic about this city. Something really magic.’

Yep, I’m nervous. I just hope I can do this city justice.

posted: March 13, 2012