August 2017 Guest Speaker
ERROL LABORDE,
Editor-in-chief, Renaissance Publishing
Errol Laborde is the Executive Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Renaissance Publishing Company.
In that capacity he serves as Editor/Associate Publisher of New Orleans Magazine and Editor/ Publisher of Louisiana Life Magazine. He also oversees several other company publications, including Acadiana Profile, St. Charles Avenue and New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles.
Laborde is producer and a regular panelist on Informed Sources, a weekly news discussion program broadcast on public television station WYES-TV, Channel 12.
The winner of over 20 New Orleans Press Club awards, Laborde is a three-time winner of the Alex Waller Award, the highest award given in print journalism by the Press Club. In 2004, 2013 and 2017 he won the Press Club¹s Ashton Phelps Award for editorial writing,
In 2013 Laborde won a national award from the City & Regional Magazine Association when he took first place in the Column writing category.
Laborde’s most recent book is Mardi Gras: Chronicles of the New Orleans Carnival. Other books are Krewe: The Early Carnival from Comus to Zulu and Marched the Day God, A history of the Rex organization. He also wrote the text for a pictorial book, Mardi Gras- A Celebration and has published two compilations of his Streetcar local color columns, The Buzzard Wore A Tutu and I Never Danced With An Eggplant.
Laborde holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of New Orleans.
He has served on the boards and been chairman of The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, Le Petit Theatre, City Park and the WWNO Advisory Board.
Laborde is a Fellow of Loyola University’s Institute of Politics and the New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute. He was recognized as a Role Model by New Orleans’ Young Leadership Council and received the Advertising Club of New Orleans’ Horn blower Award for his civic work. In 2011 he was selected as the University of New Orleans’ co-Alumnus of the year.