Posts Tagged ‘events’

Planning a trip to New Orleans this fall? The city is holding several events that you might enjoy visiting in the next few months. There’s something for everyone, including musical performances, live shows, festivals, and great food.

• FestiGals Women’s Weekend Getaway – A festival created for women by women, FestiGals is a women’s weekend retreat in the bustling and historic French Quarter. FestiGals was created to help women celebrate womanhood, fashion, food, friendship and each other. It’s a unique combination of conference and vacation getaway. Thursday, October 6th through Sunday, October 9th, 2011.
• “Thursdays at Twilight” – Every Thursday through October 13, 2011, the city holds an evening of live jazz music in the New Orleans Botanical Garden. Guests can enjoy light refreshments while strolling through the garden and listening to live performances of Latin American, jazz, and classical music.
• Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival – From October 14 to 16, 2011, the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival will be held. Featuring performances from live blues musicians, the festival will include food and crafts vendors, CDs, t-shirts, and an Oral History Stage where performers will tell visitors about their lives and experiences in the music industry.
• 22nd Annual New Orleans Film Festival – Each year, the New Orleans Film Society holds an annual film festival. In 2011, the festival will be held from October 14 through 20 and will feature entries from new and undiscovered directors, producers, and screenwriters. The Film Society will award honors to standout films during the festival.
• New Orleans Fashion Week – Fashion Week in New Orleans features designs from clothing designers, runway shows, educational workshops, and fashion luncheons. This annual event will be held during the third week of October.
• The New Orleans Fringe Festival - A five day festival, the Fringe Festival showcases live theater performances of all genres, including acrobatic performing groups, spoken word artists, performance artists, and a parade. The 2011 Fringe Festival will be held from November 16 through November 20.
• The Oak Street Po-Boy Festival – Food lovers unite! New Orleans’ signature sandwich, the Po’ Boy, is the star of this one-day festival. Food street vendors will be offered several different varieties of the classic sandwich, along with live music, hand crafts, and vintage books. The Po’Boy Festival will be held on November 20, 2011, in the Carrollton section of New Orleans.
• The Bayou Classic – Football fanatics converge on NOLA during the last weekend of November for The Bayou Classic, a rivalry matchup between the Southern University Jaguars and the Grambling University Tigers. This annual meeting between two of the country’s oldest historically Black colleges features a “Battle of the Bands” competition.

Image c/o: bdearth

There’s no doubt about it, companies and organizations like hosting their big conferences and events in New Orleans.  Our city offers lots of great meeting venues to choose from, great restaurants, great culture and music.  In fact, we just posted a list of top New Orleans fall meeting venues  in an earlier blog post.

Another big plus with New Orleans is the “walkability” of the city – meaning you can get most places around the downtown area on foot, or using the Street Car system.

However, just because it’s easy to get around New Orleans doesn’t mean your attendees wouldn’t enjoy planned transportation – whether to and from the airport, to and from special events, or even an organized tour of the local areas that you can’t get to by walking.

Don’t take chances with transportation problems

Transportation is something that meeting planners are often tempted to try and coordinate on their own, or simply hire a local motorcoach company to handle transportation.  But if done improperly, it can lead to poor experiences by attendees, which is something no meeting professional wants.  As a full service destination management company (DMC), ACCENT On Arrangements is in a unique position to help with transportation for your New Orleans event.

6 Reasons to Let a DMC arrange your event transportation

1. Risk Management:  A DMC is going to be able to provide an additional layer of general liability insurance. This gives peace of mind to the end client.
2. Insider Knowledge:  A DMC has insider knowledge of road closures and other activities in the streets within their destination. A  DMC works closely with the local police to avoid any safety issues.  This is especially important in New Orleans with so much construction happening throughout the city.
3. Feet on the Ground:  A DMC is on the ground at the airport, hotels and venues with local staff. A DMC knows the “ins and outs” of these destinations to ensure timely and safe arrival.
4. Save Time and Money: A DMC is going to be able to negotiate with their preferred vendors and pass along those savings and time to you. You may have several motorcoach companies involved all giving you excellent service and cost savings because of their relationship with the DMC.
5. Simplicity:  All Aspects of Transportation, a DMC has the expertise to manage all aspects of transportation. From airport transfers to a meeting shuttle, it’s simply a one contract, one vendor and one stop.
6. Providing the best experience possible to attendees:  This is perhaps the best reason to use a DMC for transportation – and this is to assure that your attendees have a great time at their conference or meeting.

So next time, don’t take the chance of letting something as important as transportation derail your meeting.  Let a local, New Orleans based destination management (DMC) like ACCENT on Arrangements handle this part of your event and ensure everyone has a great time!