Ivy Hartman: Welcome to sbtv.com coverage of the 2007 National Association of Women’s Business Owners Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m Ivy Hartman and with me is Judy Weitz of CompuCast Web Design and you’re located at New Orleans, Louisiana. Of course we all know where New Orleans is. But we need to talk about why that’s important because that is what your whole business revolves around as your parent site and how that inception of your business, talk about it.
Judy Weitz: Yes, it started at New Orleans because we were online before a lot of other people and noticed that everyone thought of our city as a place they couldn’t bring their children. So we started a site that promoted all the positive aspects of our city—the food, the culture, the music all the things that make us love the city and not ever want to leave.
Ivy Hartman: And what did that expended into? And I think on a lot of the viewers mind we’re all thinking, “Oh no you poor thing Katrina.”
Judy Weitz: Right, right.
Ivy Hartman: How did that impact you and where have you evolved since ’94?
Judy Weitz: Well, since ’94 when we started we then would develop portals to help the clients whose sites we design. So if we develop a site for restaurants we would develop a portal for restaurants. We did live events in grandneworleans.com. So it grew into having some portals that are interlinked with one another and promote what we know is the positive side of New Orleans experience.
Ivy Hartman: And now, then Katrina hits.
Judy Weitz: Then Katrina hit, yeah.
Ivy Hartman: And that changed another portal.
Judy Weitz: A lot.
Ivy Hartman: And another focus and just take out a lot from the commerce in the area.
Judy Weitz: Right. What happened is we were in Houston, we had to rent an apartment. We immediately setup shop with high internet access hotel when we first got there and we had—we didn’t know what happened, what would happen if any of our clients would ever come back. We didn’t know what would happen.
So little by little our clients started contacting us. Some of them sooner than other and we were—we realized that we were playing the integral part in getting them connected to their employees. The hotels would find other hotels to place their employees so they can have a place to live. So we were in-charge of trying to find these employees online and give them that information and tell them where they could stay.
So definitely expected not to have a lot of work to do after the storm when we moved into Houston, completely unsure of what was going to happen and realized that we were very integral in what needed to happen.
Ivy Hartman: What’s happening now?
Judy Weitz: Right now, it’s a wonderful time to visit New Orleans because the rates are great. All the restaurants or almost all the restaurants are open. The attractions are waiting for visitors. All of those places the French Quarter, the Garden District all of those places they are fine.
Unfortunately, what’s happening is that most people don’t know that.
Ivy Hartman: Okay.
Judy Weitz: And because most people don’t know that the city is hurting in that respect because most of the people that had jobs, I mean not most of them but many of them worked in the hospitality industry.
Ivy Hartman: Yes.
Judy Weitz: And so they’re gone and so the hospitality industry is having trouble finding employees and the ones that do come back are having trouble finding jobs because they don’t need as many people because the tourists aren’t coming back.
Ivy Hartman: There are places to live though?
Judy Weitz: There are definitely places to live, but that is the challenge because the neighborhoods are the places that you will see if you go into them that are still affected.
Ivy Hartman: So there are some places to live and important people who are working there.
Judy Weitz: Yes. They will find places to live and their employers will find them places to rent. Some of the hotels have some of their occupancy with their employees. Of course, there is still some trailers in some areas, but some areas no longer have the trailers they once had.
Things are getting better, people are returning and if you look at the greater New Orleans area you will notice that population has increased in some of the outline areas. So many people just won’t leave New Orleans.
Ivy Hartman: And we can see why. You are a true testimonial. I think what’s interesting about this and I’ve known about your industry is so many times you can log on to a website and that’s very blind you don’t know what the—who the content—what the content is driven by and who is providing that content.
Judy Weitz: Right.
Ivy Hartman: Here we are we’re providing you with the content provider. She’s very credible. She’s a native New Orleans. You’ve been there you love the city, so experienceneworleans.com started as your parent website.
Judy Weitz: Right.
Ivy Hartman: And then from that you have developed websites for client in the New Orleans area. They really promoted what you were promoting on that website and they really liked it.
Judy Weitz: Right, yes.
Ivy Hartman: So then in order to keep to flying your pockets with money and start your business so you could keep that website going you developed websites for other restaurants and hotels and that just evolved since 1994. And then with Katrina here we are now having all that.
Judy Weitz: Right, correct.
Ivy Hartman: Well thank you so much Judy for being with us. Have a safe trip back to New Orleans.
Judy Weitz: Thank you.
Ivy Hartman: And keep it right here as we continue our coverage of the NAWBO 2007 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia here at sbtv.com where small business is our only business.
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