As we close out our first full year of Biz New Orleans, we naturally started to think about what this year has meant to the business community of southeast Louisiana. In short, it’s meant growth — in virtually every industry. The port, the airport, the restaurants, commercial construction, residential sales, the healthcare explosion — everywhere you look we are growing. As ground broke on the Yuhuang Chemical plant this past September in St. James Parish, we even welcomed, for the first time, a Chinese company to Louisiana.
While it was relatively easy to look over the past year and note the top 10 stories that really shaped business in our region, ranking them was not so simple. With so many industries represented, how do you rank one above another? What I think we can all agree on, though, is that this has been an incredible year for business, and all signs point that it’s only going to get better.
We were excited this month, in particular, to speak with JEDCO’s Executive Director, Jerry Bologna, who shared with us the thinking behind the parish’s newest iteration of the EDGE plan. Everyone knows that the first step toward achieving a goal is making a solid, workable plan and it’s going to be exciting to see this one come to fruition.
Finally, as the holidays approach, you may find yourself with people on your gift list that are difficult to buy for or family in town that need entertaining. In that case, I can’t recommend enough that you consider purchasing tickets to experience Escape My Room (pg. 96), one of the latest escape rooms to open in New Orleans. Some of the staff members and I took the challenge this past summer and every one of us felt it was one of the most unique and entertaining things we’d ever done. I’m proud to say we made it out with six minutes to spare. Can you beat our time?
I wish you a wonderful holiday season and we’ll see you in the new year!
Happy reading.