22 July 2011
The annual Miami Conference on the Caribbean and Latin America is leaving Miami.
After 34 years in the city, the conference is relocating this fall to New Orleans, according to organizers from Caribbean Central American Action (CCAA), a nonprofit group that promotes business-led development.
The conference’s 35th annual edition will take place Nov. 30 through Dec. 2 in the Big Easy, co-hosted by the World Trade Center of New Orleans, organizers said.
The annual event, which attracted thousands of participants yearly in the 1980s spurred by the Reagan administration’s duty-free Caribbean Basin Initiative, had dwindled recently to draw just a few hundred people a year.
That's partly because of a shift in U.S. business interest away from the Caribbean Basin, as Mexico, Chile and other countries secured free trade agreements with the United States; China opened its doors to multinationals; and apparel trade was liberalized worldwide.
In an invitation letter, conference organizers explained the move to New Orleans like this::
“A little background... In the late 1970's, New Orleans was host to the Central American Conference". When regional turmoil cast a shadow, CCAA created a forum for the wider Caribbean Basin with its first Conference in Miami. 34 Conferences later, with meetings that have defined policy and initiated new business for the countries of the Caribbean and Central America, the Conference returns to New Orleans - a city whose history, culture, architecture, and people are a reflection of the Caribbean Basin.”
The move comes as New Orleans aims to attract a greater share of Central American trade and more of the cargo that will pass through the soon-to-be-expanded Panama Canal.
Organizers said “lower registration rates and lower hotel rates will make the event more accessible to more local and international participants” in New Orleans.
The meeting often had been held in Miami at the InterContinental Hotel downtown.
For more information on the conference organized by Washington-based CCAA, visit www.c-caa.org.