It’s Week 6 of the summer session. Congrats, everyone, for making it to the back nine, or should we call it the back four? Yeah, I like that: the back four of the IMC Summer Open.

For those of you who’ve followed my postings, you can appreciate that I’m especially glad to be over the mid-term hump. This week, I heard back from Prof. Myers that, so far, I’m on the right track with my New Orleans campaign. That was just the good word I needed to rev up for the final push.

Last week, while the mid-term was being graded, I worked on campaign objectives, strategies, and tactics. I’m continuing to tweak my ideas and work out a realistic budget and media flow chart. It’s not easy to spend $100 million—even on paper. So that tells me that I need to open up my thinking and nail those really BIG ideas that will make my campaign stand out.

Yikes! How am I going to wrap this up in four short weeks? I want to start the course over again knowing what I know now. Well…not really. Just have to keep moving forward.

Despite the nail chewing, I am enjoying the New Orleans project. I’ve learned so much about the city pre- and post-Katrina. Although I’ve visited there several times, I’ve come to realize that I’ve only experienced a thimbleful of what NOLA has to offer.

For my project I’ve zeroed in on the city’s music festivals, dining, shopping, and arts district. Sure, Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street are quintessential New Orleans, but, believe me, there’s so much more to do, and at all times of the year. The lineup for Jazz Fest was amazing this spring, cutting across most music genres. The French Quarter festival also looks like a total good time. And over July 4th weekend, Essence magazine sponsors the Essence Music Festival, a New Orleans tradition that gets better every year.

And since I’m a foodie, I keep reading about the city’s new restaurants that I’m dying to try and also remembering the delicious meals that my husband and I had a few years ago at Commander’s Palace and the more modest, but just as tasty, Gumbo Shop.

I’m ready to go back. How about you?

New Orleans will welcome us with open arms.

And if you do find yourself traveling to NOLA for business or pleasure, think about staying an extra day or two and signing up for a Voluntourism project. A number of corporations, associations, and faith-based groups are donating their time to build a Habitat for Humanity house, help paint a school, or pick up trash and debris in City Park.

Voluntourism is definitely the “in” thing to do. You just might encounter Brad Pitt, founder of Make It Right, a home-building project focused on New Orleans’ Ninth Ward.

But donating some vacation time to New Orleans’ recovery also seems like the right thing to do. Last week I heard a fellow AMA-Richmond member relate his recent experience spending a day on a Habitat project while in New Orleans for a business meeting. When he and his dog-tired coworkers returned to the hotel after a grueling day spent working in the Ninth Ward, the Ritz-Carlton staff lined up to greet the bus and give the volunteers a rousing round of applause. Wow! Talk about a feel-good moment.

That’s just what NOLA needs—more people coming to the city and experiencing a wonderful time. New Orleans is part of America’s fabric that should be experienced and appreciated. See what Campaigns will do to ya? I’ve got the fever.

P.S. Study Tunes
Totally switching gears—and I’m sure that I’m the last person on Earth to find out about this neat web site—but lately I’ve been studying to a wonderful music experience I’ve discovered online: Pandora. If you’ve not discovered the Music Genome Project, check it out. And since I probably am the last one on the planet to find this, just be kind and don’t tell me.