Trust is integral to successful place branding, because you’ll find yourself trying to push boulders uphill if you don’t have stakeholder buy-in. But the true value of that trust lies outside of place branding’s daily activities; it’s also the bedrock you need to weather oncoming crises. We sat down with Walt Leger III, President & CEO of New Orleans & Company, to explore how investing in stakeholder alignment activities has underpinned both their recent UNESCO City of Music designation as well as their crisis management and communication strategies.

Firstly, congratulations on being named a UNESCO Creative City of Music! How are you planning to use the designation going forward?

Being named a UNESCO Creative City of Music is both an honour and a responsibility for New Orleans. As a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, New Orleans now stands alongside global cultural capitals formally recognised for music as a driver of economic development, cultural preservation, and international collaboration.

For us, this designation isn’t ceremonial — it’s strategic.

Music in New Orleans is not an accessory to tourism — it is core infrastructure. It supports thousands of jobs, from musicians and sound engineers to venue operators, festival producers, hoteliers, and restaurateurs.

Going forward, we will use the designation to:

• Expand international partnerships with other UNESCO Cities of Music
• Attract global cultural events, convenings, and investment
• Support workforce development for cultural bearers and next-generation musicians
• Strengthen grant competitiveness for creative economy funding
• Market New Orleans globally as a living, working music ecosystem — not just a festival city

It gives us a globally recognised framework to align cultural preservation with measurable economic growth.

How have you found the process of getting stakeholders to trust in your strategy — both with the City of Music designation and with your broader vision for New Orleans?

While residents generally recognise the importance of the hospitality industry to our community, they do not always have the same level of understanding or familiarity with the various elements that comprise it. This is especially true of our cultural economy.

Broadening the way we articulate the value of the hospitality industry — while being clear about how all stakeholders, particularly those in creative industries, contribute to and benefit from it — is a key part of this strategy.

Ultimately, trust is built through consistency, transparency, and results.

When we pursued the City of Music designation, we made it clear this was not about a logo. It was about aligning cultural institutions, musicians, educators, venue owners, and policymakers around a shared economic vision.

In New Orleans, stakeholders are rightly protective of authenticity. So the key was this:

Lead with the culture. Follow with the metrics.

We engaged musicians, nonprofits, and cultural leaders early. We showed how the designation would create tangible opportunity — not just marketing headlines.

The same approach applies to our broader vision: New Orleans is not just a destination. It is a city where culture powers the economy. When stakeholders see alignment between culture and commerce — trust follows.

As we worked to construct our Vision 2035 Plan, we engaged a variety of stakeholders and community leaders, sought input and advice, reviewed “masterplans” across numerous sectors, and created a steering committee of trusted partners to guide the process. This collaborative approach led to a document that resonates with the community and partner organisations — not centered on the needs of the tourism industry, but centred on creating a community that is a great place to live, work, learn, and visit.

What tools have you found particularly effective when it comes to advocating with your stakeholders? Do you have any learnings for other place leaders?

Three tools have proven particularly effective:

Data married to storytelling

Economic impact numbers matter — but so do human stories. When you can show that culture drives billions in visitor spending and keeps a trumpeter employed year-round, the strategy becomes real.

Coalition-building across sectors

Tourism, economic development, workforce development, and cultural preservation cannot operate in silos. The more integrated the coalition, the stronger the advocacy. The more ownership and participation partners have in building strategies, the more buy-in they ultimately have in the outcomes.

Consistent narrative discipline

You cannot change messaging every quarter. You have to repeat the long-term vision until it becomes common language.

New Orleans & Company is often cited as a national leader in crisis management. What steps do you recommend that place-brand and marketing organisations take to ensure they are prepared to handle any emergency?

New Orleans has unfortunately learned resilience through experience, particularly since Hurricane Katrina.

Preparation requires:

• Pre-built media relationships before a crisis occurs
• Clear communication protocols
• Scenario planning and rapid response frameworks
• Alignment between city, tourism, hospitality, and public safety leadership
• A steady voice grounded in facts — not emotion

The most important principle:

You cannot invent credibility during a crisis. You must have earned it beforehand.

Additionally, we practise a communications strategy centred around the three “H’s”: Speak with humanity, honesty, and hope.

The media often resurfaces old traumas around tragedy anniversaries. Given that 2025 was the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, how did you work with the media to ensure they were telling a positive story about New Orleans?

Anniversaries of tragedy are complex. They deserve reverence and honesty — but they should not freeze a city in time.

In 2025, we worked closely with media outlets to ensure the story was balanced:

• We acknowledged the tragic and significant loss of life, property, and livelihood, as well as the lessons learned and solutions implemented in response.
• We highlighted two decades of reinvention, infrastructure investment, entrepreneurship, and cultural resilience.
• We positioned New Orleans not as a city defined by disaster, but as a city defined by determination.

The message was simple:

Katrina is part of our story — it is not the whole story.

When journalists understand that nuance, the coverage becomes more accurate and more forward-looking.

Finally, what do you think are the essential qualities a leader needs to effectively lead their team through a crisis?

Leading through crisis requires:

• Clarity. Say what you know. Say what you don’t know. Avoid speculation.
• Calm. Teams mirror their leaders.
• Consistency. Stay aligned with long-term strategy even in short-term turbulence.
• Credibility. Earned before the crisis.
• Compassion. Economic recovery cannot ignore human impact.

Above all, crisis leadership requires the ability to hold two truths at once:

You can acknowledge difficulty while projecting confidence.

That balance — honest but forward-looking — is what allows destinations like New Orleans not only to recover, but to grow stronger.

And ultimately, that is what the UNESCO Creative City of Music designation represents:

A city whose culture is not fragile — it is foundational.

Thanks so much for your time, Walt, we really appreciate it. And we look forward to hearing from you in Vancouver at CNP Americas 2026 in April!

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