business information resource. We're one of only two American cities—the other is Seattle—that has a tool of this robustness and capability. The second tool is the Crescent City Biz Connector—a mapping tool that categorizes resources for services that help small businesses identify technical assistance providers appropriate for them. For instance, a small-business owner may be great at marketing, but not the best at financial book keeping. You may be great at customer service, but you may not be as fluent with how to go out and get new business. We want to make it easier for companies to find those technical assistance providers that can be most beneficial to them. The third tool is the Opportunity Portal. This tool helps entrepreneurs of color and women identify opportunities for procurement with the city's office of small business, including supplier diversity as well as procurement programs from Orleans Parish School Board, to the Port of New Orleans, to Woodward Design Build, to New Orleans and Co., to the Morial Convention Center, to companies like Entergy. It basically says, ‘Here's what you need to do in order to be ready to take advantage of these procurement opportunities.’ Essentially, if you can demystify the playbook of what it takes to be successful as an entrepreneur, successful in the free market, then you can allow people to be incredibly competitive and thrive. Biz: When you spoke with us a few years ago, you said one of the biggest issues that New Orleans has is a perception problem. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Have things changed at all? QM: I think it's improved tremendously, but you know, perception lacks reality. I think perception is two-fold: there's external perception and there's selfperception. Externally, we have made strides in getting people to realize that New Orleans is business-friendly. We're open to business. We're committed to the free market. We're committed to making sure that's it’s an easy and open place for capital. And that matters for small businesses too—it's not just big companies that are looking for places that have business-friendly policies. I still think our biggest opportunity for improvement on perception, however, is with our self-perception. If you've ever sat next to a Texan on an airplane and you don't have on noise-canceling headphones, they're going to try to convince you to move to Texas. They just are evangelistic about the wonders of Texas. No knock against Texas, they have done a tremendous job, but we are a city that's given birth to jazz, to Creole cuisine. We are a city that has a wonderful time celebrating family, faith, spirituality. We have a vibrant entrepreneurial scene. We have a tremendous higher-ed community. I can't think of another city that has all of this and is also
walkable, where you don't have to sit in traffic for an hour and 15 minutes. New Orleanians are very humble, but there comes a point where you have to own and tell your own story. Each and every one of us has to be an ambassador for our city. Folks in Texas do it all the time. And you may say well, that's just corny, but there's tangible proof that Texans have said this so much that the rest of the world believes there's something magical happening in Texas. Look at the population trends. Look at the migration of capital to Texas and I'm not just talking about one part of Texas.
It is a part of the psyche. I think that we have to feel the same way and I think we will. I think increasingly we will. Biz: What is NOLABA doing in terms of battling this perception problem? QM: One of the things is that we’ve created something called the Economic Development Ambassadors Program, where we're providing information to folks so they feel more comfortable telling the full story of who we are as it relates to the economy and the opportunity that exists for people to realize their entrepreneurial dreams in this city.
Another thing we’re doing relates to something I like to say, and that is New Orleans is sexy-smart. We're never not going to be interesting. We're never not going to fun. But trust and believe we are deadly serious about getting the business of business done. On that note, New Orleans in the Center is a programming that we do with Aspen Institute—one of the most highly esteemed think tanks and thought leaders globally on multiple issues—where Aspen comes to New Orleans every year. Last year, they looked at the changing nature of work and what automation would mean toward the workplace of the future. Both local thought leaders and leaders from all over the world come and discuss these ideas and help us as a business alliance think about what this means for our work. We think that's just only a small way of sort of beginning to get people to see New Orleans in its full richness in 3D, rather than in sort of flat 2D image that we sometimes have nationally and internationally. Biz: Any final thoughts you’d like to share? QM: There are no silver bullets. You're not going to do a quick hit. You have to be about the business and about the grind and about sort of trying to move the needle forward day after day, month after month, year after year, generation after generation. I remember growing up when the state of North Carolina was just tobacco and maybe people went to the beach at Wilmington and Cape Hatteras. Now, it’s about financial institutions. It’s about the Research Triangle. It's about innovation. That started in 1959—60 years ago. You look at Nashville, Nashville has become a tremendous healthcare, IT and health mecca, but that work started in the ’70s. In New Orleans what we've been embarking on started you know when folks like Matt Wisdom at Turbo Squid and Patrick Comer of Lucid said, "Hey, we're going to grow a great technology company here in New Orleans." That started in the 2000s. It hasn't even been 20 years yet. But they have been at it, they weathered the storm and they inspired others to take a leap of faith. And I think that that's critically important— getting people to buy into something that's going to last across political administrations. We may not be the full beneficiaries, but it’s about getting people to understand the need for collective investment in our future. At NOLABA we think we can be an important voice, but certainly not the only voice, in help making that happen.
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