I googled the Cotton Exchange, and it looks like it's on Carondelet, on the other side of Canal. They say it's one block to Bourbon street, which is sort of a *wink wink* -- one block will get you across Canal and into the Quarter proper, but you'll have to go a few more blocks down Bourbon to get to the crazy stuff.

That said, it's a good location, and it will likely be quieter at night than a hotel located in the Quarter.

Le Cirque seems to be a new hotel on St. Charles. It is not in walking distance of the Quarter, but there is the St. Charles streetcar, and again, it will be quieter. It's also in walking distance of cool things in Uptown. And if it's a new property, it should be in good shape.

All things being equal, I'd toss out the Raddison - for another $10 a night, you'll be either in the Quarter, in walking distance, or on the streetcar line.

The Radisson's rooftop pool is the only argument I can make for keeping it in the runnning. The pool was a nice diversion for a few of us in Washington, but I suspect New Orleans may temperatures would make one more appealing to teh group as a whole.

When they say 'meeting space', they're talking about a conference room, right? Is that really what we're looking for in a hospitality suite?

We essentially had a conference room in DC. They put in some big chairs for us and tables to sit around as well.

The meeting space worked better for comfy space than the suite did but wasn't as pretty. We were rather crowded in a suite. We might form an aesthetic committee for the HS area to make a standard conference room more welcoming to Buffistas.

Swimming pool is a plus.

People with more local experience will have to advise on the hotels because I have only been to NOLA twice and have no opinion.

I'm planning to get into N.O. a few days early to make sure that things are all squared away at the hotel and as such can help make sure that our hospitality suite is set up to be nice and welcoming. If other folks want to join me a day or two early then we can all pitch in and make it quite the gathering place.

ND. I can probably get down there early and bring a local or two to help out, possibly borrow a car.

The Cotton Exchange and Le Cirque sound like the best options of the batch to me.

I'm in the lack-of-internet-is-pretty-much-a-deal-breaker camp.

The one thing I worry about on a conference room that an asthetics committee might have trouble with would be the comfiness of the chairs (also, multi-person seating might be nice, but, you know, that's not such a big deal), and the number thereof.

So we're still trying to answer the question of internet access. It's a big issue for me too. Comfy seating would be a very good thing as well.