E- News March 16, 2007

NAPSLO officials visit New Orleans, convention hotels;
find convention area of city in great shape 
NAPSLO Convention Chair Mary Ellen Rozzell, Executive Director Richard Bouhan, and Director of Meetings & Conventions Debbie Hill recently visited New Orleans and found the convention area in great shape. 

"New Orleans has made great strides in updating and enhancing the main convention area," said Ms. Rozzell. "NAPSLO Convention attendees will be surprised by the city."

That perception was echoed in a recent New Orleans Times Picayune article (Conventioneers see N.O. for themselves: Many find that their preconceptions were inaccurate) reviewing the large number of conventioneers visiting, or planning to visit New Orleans, including 25,000 for a Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society meeting.

"What the news stations put on television is not what actually happens here," a visitor from Chicago told the paper. "For a visitor, things are pretty much back to normal." 

Responding to questions raised by a representative of a London firm following seeing a report on the BBC regarding New Orleans, Mr. Bouhan wrote the following based on his experiences at a recent convention.

Canal street (the main street on which the NAPSLO hotels are located) is in great shape and shows the benefit of a multi-million dollar renovation which included the planting of hundreds of palm trees.  The French Quarter, the heart of the New Orleans entertainment district, is in fine shape and was as clean as I have ever seen it.  Bourbon Street, the major street in the French Quarter, was crowded during the evenings and looked as if business was being conducted as usual.  The Garden District which contains a number of elegant mansions showed no remaining effects from the storms and flood which occurred in 2005.  I saw no vacant  houses.

I went through both the Sheraton and Marriott hotels (the two NAPSLO Convention hotels) and they were in complete repair, fully staffed and full as a result of this convention.

New Orleans Convention set for October 3-6 
NAPSLO's 2007 Convention is scheduled for October 3-6 at the New Orleans Marriott and the Sheraton New Orleans. Registration material will be sent to members around June 1, however an informational brochure was handed out at the Mid-Year Workshop and is available to download for more information.

The theme of the convention is The Big Easy Rising: Rebirth, Rebuild and Renew. A couple of items of note for the 2007 meeting:

• A special program has been set for Thursday morning featuring a group of top Brokers and Carrier representatives to discuss What's Ahead for the E&S Wholesaler?   
• A limited number of tables in the Broker's Lounge will be available for a fee for member firms to reserve.    
• James Carville and Mary Matalin will be the speakers at the Derek Hughes/NAPSLO Educational Foundation Lecture on Friday.   
• NAPSLO is working with Habitat For Humanity to set up a program on Saturday morning for attendees to assist on a renovation project, or make a financial contribution.

E&S Schools nearly sold out
Both sessions of the NAPSLO E&S Schools set for mid-June are nearly sold out. NAPSLO added a second session this year but since the registration materials were made available March 1 NAPSLO has received more than 130 applications.

The first session is set for June 9-12 and the second session will be June 12-15. Both will take place at the Eric P. Newman Education Center & The Parkway Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri

Firms can post job information using new Job Locator 
NAPSLO's Career Center has a new Job Openings Locator where members can list their career web site and Human Resources information.

The Career section is part of NAPSLO's efforts to attract new people to the surplus lines industry. Previously the "Job Openings" locator was part of the Member Locator but now is a separate section and firms can list a HR person and career website to show up when users check out which firms offer employment information. 

To list your firm's information, vist the following page.

Upcoming NAPSLO Events 
NAPSLO E&S School (Session 1) June 9-12 - St. Louis, MO
NAPSLO E&S School (Session 2) June 12-15 - St. Louis, MO
2007 Annual Convention - October 3-6 - New Orleans, LA
2007 NAPSLO Advanced School - St. Louis, MO - October 27-30
2008 Mid-Year Workshop - February 20-23 - Scottsdale, AZ