2012 NOLABA Executive Leadership Tour

JULY 12,2012

Last week, we had the incred­i­ble honor of host­ing ten top-level exec­u­tives from diverse indus­tries dur­ing the ESSENCE® Music Fes­ti­val. As one of New
Orleans’ most impor­tant and nation­ally rec­og­nized fes­ti­vals, ESSENCE® pro­vided a per­fect back­drop to show­case New Orleans at its best for vis­it­ing
exec­u­tives inter­ested in expand­ing and/or invest­ing in our mar­ket. From our vibrant cul­ture to our eco­nomic growth and inno­v­a­tive ecosys­tem, the energy in
New Orleans is elec­tric. For those of you who were unable to attend the 2012 Exec­u­tive Lead­er­ship Tour events, read on for some high­lights of the week.

Thurs­day, July 5^th

Wel­come Lun­cheon:
The guest exec­u­tives and a select group of local busi­ness lead­ers gath­ered at the Hyatt Regency to hear more about oppor­tu­ni­ties in New Orleans and receive
a warm wel­come from Keynote Speaker Rita Ben­son LeBlanc.

Awards Cer­e­mony:
We launched our first annual NOLABA Busi­ness Lead­er­ship and Com­mu­nity Impact Awards by hon­or­ing three women for their incred­i­ble con­tri­bu­tions to New
Orleans. We pre­sented awards to CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien, New­Corp Pres­i­dent and CEO Vaughn Fau­ria, and JCH Devel­op­ment Pres­i­dent Tara Carter Her­nan­dez
dur­ing an evening recep­tion at Harrah’s® New Orleans Casino & Hotel. This is the first annual Busi­ness Achieve­ment Award.

Fri­day, July 6^th

Famil­iar­iza­tion Tours:
One of the cor­ner­stones of the Exec­u­tive Lead­er­ship Tour was to famil­iar­ize our invited guests with the busi­ness and invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties that exist in
Orleans Parish. Exec­u­tive guests joined local busi­ness lead­ers and NOLABA staff on one of three tours of New Orleans focus­ing on oppor­tu­ni­ties in spe­cific
indus­tries in the City.

The Inno­va­tion Ecosys­tem tour
vis­ited loca­tions such as Sec­ond Line Stages, the Receiv­ables Exchange, and the Idea Vil­lage to gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the City’s exist­ing
inno­va­tion ecosys­tem that includes the incred­i­ble start up com­mu­nity and the film and dig­i­tal media industries.

The Man­u­fac­tur­ing tour
vis­ited indus­trial sites at Michoud Assem­bly Facil­ity and the Port of New Orleans, allow­ing guests to dis­cover the City’s unpar­al­leled infra­struc­ture for
man­u­fac­tur­ing and indus­trial enter­prises. They dis­cov­ered the value-added man­u­fac­tur­ing, trade and logis­tics oppor­tu­ni­ties asso­ci­ated with our port, and
the advan­tages our geo­graphic loca­tion will offer once the Panama Canal opens.

The Real Estate tour
show­cased oppor­tu­ni­ties for new devel­op­ment in New Orleans East, Gen­tilly and in the Cen­tral Busi­ness District-especially along Canal Street and in the Bio
District.

Busi­ness Round­table Panel Lun­cheon:
To pro­vide deeper insights into the oppor­tu­ni­ties for busi­ness invest­ment in New Orleans, Soledad O’Brien mod­er­ated a round­table panel dis­cus­sion fea­tur­ing
local busi­ness lead­ers and our exec­u­tive guests. Justin Augus­tine, Pres­i­dent of RTA and Michelle Craig, Part­ner at Adams & Reese lent their local
insights while Angela Ben­ton, founder and CEO of NewMe Accel­er­a­tor and Eric Kyereme, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of Sika Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment shared their impres­sions
as guests in New Orleans. Mayor Mitch Lan­drieu deliv­ered remarks and pro­nounced New Orleans offi­cially the “City of YES” and Joy Collins, Gen­eral Man­ager
of Essence Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Inc., shared her excite­ment about the ESSENCE® festival’s pre­ferred home in New Orleans.

Last week’s events were a great suc­cess and we are so thank­ful for every­one who worked so dili­gently to ensure our exec­u­tive guests enjoyed their time in
New Orleans and had valu­able expo­sure to the oppor­tu­ni­ties for locat­ing busi­nesses and/or invest­ing in our market.

Spe­cial thanks to our spon­sors: ESSENCE® Music Fes­ti­val, CNN, Harrah’s® New Orleans Casino & Hotel, Cap­i­tal One, The Kennedy Finan­cial Group,
Clear Chan­nel Media + Enter­tain­ment, the New Orleans Mul­ti­cul­tural Tourism Net­work, Adams & Reese, Beuer­man Miller Fitzger­ald, and P.S. Creative.

Hats off to our Host Com­mit­tee for the Exec­u­tive Lead­er­ship Tour: Michelle Craig (Co-Chair) — Adams & Reese Part­ner, Ronald Burns (Co-chair) — BMG
Enter­prises’ Owner, Vic­to­ria Adams — The Idea Village’s Net­work Rela­tions Man­ager, Mark Bou­cree — Cap­i­tal One Bank’s Vice Pres­i­dent of Com­mu­nity
Devel­op­ment Bank­ing, Tracee Dun­das — the New Orleans Magazine’s Fash­ion Edi­tor, Patri­cia High­tower (NOLABA Board Mem­ber) — Bayou Equity Mortgage’s
Pres­i­dent and CEO, Chadrick Kennedy — The Kennedy Finan­cial Group’s Senior Vice Pres­i­dent, Vir­ginia Miller — Beuer­man Miller Fitzgerald’s Co-Owner, Jade
Rus­sell — Cae­sars Entertainment’s Coun­sel of Regional Oper­a­tions, and Toni Rice — the New Orleans Mul­ti­cul­tural Tourism Network’s President.

News Clips from 2012 Exec­u­tive Lead­er­ship Tour:

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http://www.adamsandreese.com/adams-and-reese-partner-michelle-craig-interviewed-on-new-orleans-business-alliance-hosting-executives-for-essence-fest-07–03-2012/

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