Hopes for a revival in large events at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center this autumn have been dashed by Hurricane Ida, which did more than $1 million worth of damage to the facility and made potential conventioneers wary of coming to the city.
The outlook for the city's convention business was already shaky because of the latest surge in COVD-19 cases, which made several of the events set to take place in coming months vulnerable to cancellation.
Now, 11 of the 34 events that had been booked from September through the end of the year have been canceled, including some that would have attracted tens of thousands of visitors, Convention Center officials said this week.
Members of the Louisiana National Guard at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on Wednesday, September 1, 2021 in New Orleans as the region tries to rebuild following Hurricane Ida. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
"The biggest challenge in keeping the [convention] groups in place is the general misperception for how New Orleans fared through the storm, during an already tenuous condition nationally due to COVID," Tim Hemphill, the facility's head of sales and marketing, told the Convention Center board of commissioners Wednesday.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Conference, which had been scheduled to commence on Sept. 11, was canceled right after Ida hit, when it was obvious the city wouldn't even have begun to recover in time. With attendance typically of about 15,000 and more than 750 exhibitors, the conference had been expected to be the first major event since the pandemic began.
The board also heard on Wednesday that the hurricane had inflicted extensive damage to the building's massive roof, which caused dozens of leaks and water damage, requiring more than $1 million of repairs.
In the wake of the hurricane, the Convention Center was pressed into service as a temporary medical facility and hosted emergency service workers and U.S. National Guard personnel.
Adam Straight, the building's head of operations, told the board that it had ceased this week to operate as an emergency staging post. He expects that the repairs should be completed by Oct. 15.
But there was more bad news on the events front. Last Friday, the Produce Marketing Association said that its huge "Fresh Summit" event scheduled for the end of October wouldn't proceed. The last one of those, at the Anaheim Convention Center, in California in 2019, had 24,000 attendees and 1,700 exhibitors.
The PMA Fresh Summit was due to take over the entire Convention Center and all of its halls. But last Friday, PMA CEO Cathy Burns said in a video message posted on the organization's website, "We had hoped to be able to bring everybody together for Fresh Summit 2021 at the end of October, but given the impact of Hurricane Ida on New Orleans and now Tropical Storm Nicholas we have decided we are unable to put (it) on."
She went on to explain that it took weeks on the ground prior to the three-day event to prepare.
"We are simply not confident that the infrastructure necessary for an event the size and the scale of Fresh Summit will be in place," Burns said.
The Solar Power International convention which had been due to commence on Monday, Sep. 20, also was canceled. In 2019, SPI attracted 19,000 visitors and 700 exhibitors at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City.
Hemphill said that there are still 23 events booked at the center through to the end of the year, including three with the potential to attract very large crowds: the American Academy of Ophthalmology on Nov. 15, with expected attendance of 20,000; the American Kennel Club on Nov. 21, with 17,000 visitors expected; and the American Geophysical Union on Dec. 17, with 20,000 expected.
The center and the city's tourism marketing agency, New Orleans & Co., are pulling out all the stops to try and attract attendees, Hemphill said.
National Guard vehicles are seen at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center which is being set up as a shelter of last resort before the arrival of Hurricane Ida in New Orleans, La. Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
New Orleans & Co has produced a video, for example, aimed at encouraging potential attendees to the Specialty Coffee Association confab starting Oct. 1. In it, Walt Leger III, head of strategy at New Orleans & Co. says, "You'll have seen the news lately and realize that heavy winds blew through our region lately." But he emphasizes the city's resiliency in bouncing back from such events.
The coffee event organizers already anticipate that visitor numbers will be only 5,000 instead of the original 11,000.
The prolonged absence of major events continues to deplete the Convention Center's financial reserves.
Operating revenues this year through July were only about $4 million, which includes money paid by the state for its emergency roles. Expenses — mainly wages as the staff has been maintained at full force — were $24 million, according to the latest financial report. With depreciation and other charges, the loss runs to more than $31 million through July, only about half of which was covered by the building's share of New Orleans' hotel taxes.
So far this year, officials have had to dip into reserves to cover another $21 million in operating expenses, on top of the $22 million shortfall last year.
