War Conference Lands at New Orleans Museum
by: Ian McNulty
The most destructive event in New Orleans history delayed, but has not derailed, a new conference commemorating the most destructive war in world history. This month, the National World War II Museum (formerly known as the National D-Day Museum) will host the International Conference on World War II, an event billed as one of the largest and most comprehensive gatherings of historians, journalists and World War II veterans since the war.
The event was originally scheduled for October 2005 to mark 60 years since the end of the war but, due to Hurricane Katrina, it will take place Nov. 16-19 at the museum and at the adjacent Contemporary Arts Center in the Warehouse Arts District.
“Presenting this conference and reopening the museum in the aftermath of Katrina demonstrate the resilience of the American spirit and our museum’s strong commitment to be in the vanguard of the city’s recovery efforts,” says museum president Nick Mueller.
Museum marketing director Clew Goldberger says the conference programming is largely aimed at a general audience and will address different facets of the war and its consequences. Among those giving presentations are veteran newsmen Walter Cronkite and Andy Rooney, former senator and 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright. One component of the conference, called Memory Hall, will give the participants and the general public an opportunity to talk with veterans about their experiences in the war and on the home front.
The conference will also feature a preview of a World War II documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns. The director, who won acclaim for his film series The Civil War, Jazz, and Baseball, is wrapping up a project called The War in conjunction with PBS that will air next fall.
Goldberger says hosting the International Conference on World War II is a reflection of the museum’s growing prominence. Dedicated in 2000 as the National D-Day Museum, the facility was later designated by Congress as the country’s official World War II Museum. Last year it was renamed as the National World War II Museum, – an acknowledgement that it has come to embody much more than the military campaign for which it was named. It is in the midst of an expansion plan that would quadruple the size of the museum, include new exhibit halls covering the different phases and branches of armed services from the war and educational and research centers.
More information about the conference is on-line at www.ww2conference.org.
– Ian McNulty
Football Anthem Supports “Music Rising” Fund
Even people who don’t consider themselves avid football fans may well look back fondly on the events of Sept. 25, the night the Louisiana Superdome reopened, the New Orleans Saints trounced the Atlanta Falcons and the city’s recovery was showcased before record-setting television audiences. One of the many memorable moments from that symbolic night was musical, as rock superstars U2 and Green Day performed New Orleans-centric songs together in a pre-game collaboration that continues to aid the recovery effort.
U2 and Green Day collaborated on a song called “The Saints are Coming,” their remake of an obscure 1978 single by a Scottish band called The Skids, which proved electrifying to the sell-out crowd of more than 70,000 people packing the Superdome that night with its apparent reference to the home team. They also performed a new version of the U2 anthem “Beautiful Day” with rewritten lyrics specifically calling out the hard-hit New Orleans neighborhoods Lakeview, Gentilly and the Lower Ninth Ward.
Now, the bands are selling downloadable versions of “The Saints are Coming” on-line, with proceeds benefiting Music Rising. This nonprofit – established by U2 guitarist known as the Edge, and Gibson Guitar chairman and chief executive officer Henry Juszkiewicz – raises money to buy and donate musical instruments to performers, churches and schools affected by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Music Rising provided funding and instruments to help reopen the historic Preservation Hall jazz club in the French Quarter in April.
As far as fundraising vehicles go, the U2/Green Day tune certainly had a high-profile marketing boost thanks to its performance before the game. ESPN’s broadcast of the Saints-Falcons game was the second most-watched cable television broadcast ever – second only to a debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot. The game was ESPN’s highest-rated telecast ever, with an average of 15 million viewers during the broadcast.
In another fund-raising effort, Gibson is selling a special edition Music Rising guitar at Guitar Center retail stores across the country. All proceeds from the $600 guitars go the Music Rising fund.
“Music Rising is dedicated to helping regain a foothold on their future but will also ensure that one of the Gulf Coast’s greatest assets, its music, will rise again,” the Edge said in a statement. – I.M.
And the Winner Buys Lunch …
Sometimes, being out to lunch is just the place to be to make business connections. The Louisiana Technology Council (LTC) is capitalizing on that dynamic for an innovative new fund-raising vehicle that puts people together with local movers and shakers over lunch.
Through a program called Executive Connect, high-ranking corporate executives, government officials and other local leaders agree to put themselves up for on-line auction – with the highest bidder winning the right to call them up and schedule a lunch meeting.
The program was designed by the LTC last year and had its initial run just before Hurricane Katrina put it on hold. Now it’s back, and each month the public has a chance to enter on-line bids for lunch with a new slate of local leaders, including bank presidents, the heads of cabinet-level state offices and lawmakers. Bids can be placed for free online at www.executiveconnect.org, where winning bid amounts are posted after each monthly round. Proceeds fund the programs of the LTC, helping the organization provide more programs and services for local technology businesses and entrepreneurs.
“People who had the winning bids were very excited to connect one-on-one with these business people and local leaders who they thought were out of reach,” says LTC president Mark Lewis. “The people who agree to be auctioned off see the value of the programs we present, and Executive Connect gives them a different way to support us.”
The LTC also raises money through Executive Connect by allowing nonprofits in other communities – such as chambers of commerce and technology councils – to use its system to create their own auctions. The council charges these groups a fee and then shares a percentage of the winning bids its auctions generate.
The LTC also has plans to expand the program locally. Some of the people on Lewis’s own wish list for high-profile auction guests could be movie stars who now frequently visit New Orleans while working on film productions in the region, especially those interested in giving back to the city as it rebuilds.
The council is also interested in leveraging its Executive Connect model to raise money in direct conjunction with other nonprofits working to support a resurgent New Orleans – such as the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. One idea is to offer George Bush (the elder) or Bill Clinton as a lunch guest through the auction and split the proceeds between the council and the former presidents’ Katrina fund. – I.M.
