After the flood that followed Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, the internet became a vital connection among dispersed New Orleanians, former New Orleanians, friends of the city and of the Gulf Coast region. A surge of new blogs erupted and, combined with those that were already online, a community of bloggers with a shared interest in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast developed. In the summer of 2006, after the success of the first Geek Dinner, and to mark the anniversary of the flood, the newly formed NOLA Bloggers organized the first Rising Tide Conference, taking their shared interest in technology, the internet and social media and turning advocacy for the city into action.

Chris Cooper and Robert Block, Wall Street Journal correspondents and authors of Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security, were keynote speakers at the first Rising Tide, which was held at the New Orleans Yacht Club on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. In year two Dave Zirin, syndicated columnist and author of Welcome to the Terrordome, keynoted as the event grew beyond expectations.