Disclaimer – With this post and the title of it, my goal was to make a literary pun based on the heat and humidity of New Orleans in the summer. Based on replies I have received, obviously the article did not come across as I intended. I went too far. I wrongly did not consider that mentioning New Orleans in a negative light still hits a raw nerve with many over the tragedy left from Katrina. I apologize if I have offended anyone in any way. The original post has been edited based on feedback I received.
I’m going to the SHRM conference and sort of looking forward to it. I won’t have a booth but I will be walking the exhibition hall and chatting with our existing HRIS vendors and prospective HRMS software vendors. That being said, I truthfully don’t think SHRM could have picked a worse place, for the time of the year, to hold their annual conference. New Orleans in the fall, winter, or spring has a lot of character and can be a nice place to visit if you are careful; but IN THE SUMMER? No pun intended but the choice stinks.
I am a native Floridian and now live in the Tampa area. I know what heat and humidity are. I actually like it. Florida’s state motto is the “Sunshine State.” I think a more truthful motto would be “Florida, the Big Sweaty Hug.”
Then, there is New Orleans in the summer. Again, I am a Floridian but let me tell you, you have not seen heat and humidity until you have been to New Orleans in the summer. I ended up there four of five years ago at the same time of year as SHRM’s upcoming show. I, a native Floridian, did not believe any place could be hotter and wetter than South Florida in August. Oh, was I wrong. Walking around the streets of New Orleans was sheer torture. There were busy road side booths selling drinking water, personal fans, and cooling neck tie things. It was all needed just to not pass out. I’m not kidding. There was one day my wife and I walked about two hundred yards across a treeless court yard and we were not sure we would make it without passing out. In my 44 years of a Floridian existence, I have never experienced heat and humidity that came anywhere close to comparing to New Orleans in the summer.
Bring lots of light weight summer clothes. Leave the dark colored business suits at home and please bring lots of deodorant, maybe even a back up stick or two. Antiperspirants won’t work so leave them at home. If you booked a hotel room within a few blocks of the conference center and planned on walking to the show, skip the walk and take a taxi. Ignore my advice once maybe, but you won’t twice, trust me. Walk around the show and you will quickly be able to point out, or smell out, who walked and who took the air conditioned taxi.
Here’s a link from Frommers regarding being safe in New Orleans.