CTIA will be moving its spring wireless conference to New Orleans in 2012 and pushing the usual date from March to May 8-10. The Wireless Association says the move was in response to its customers’ requests that the spring show be more closely aligned with planning time frames for back-to-school and holiday products.

In an afternoon call with press, John Walls, vice president of public affairs for CTIA, told reporters that the association looks forward to getting back to New Orleans. This will be the association’s seventh show in the Big Easy. The last time CTIA held a conference in New Orleans was in 2005.

When asked why CTIA chose New Orleans, Walls said it’s one of maybe six cities in the United States that can handle a show the size of CTIA Wireless, while maintaining cost efficiency for guests and vendors.

“We’ve had great experiences with New Orleans … it’s a venue with which we’re very familiar and have a lot of confidence that the city can facilitate a show of this size,” Walls said, adding that New Orleans has recovered remarkably well in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The conference will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. New Orleans boasts an increase of 300 restaurants since 2005, along with new cultural attractions, $400 million of improvements to local hotels, $250 million of improvements to the Louisiana Superdome and $92.7 million of improvements to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center itself.

This year’s spring International CTIA Wireless conference, which will take place March 21-24 in Orlando, Fla., is expected to host 40,000 attendees at the Orange County Convention Center. Vertical markets with a strong presence at the show include: cloud computing, retail, healthcare, energy, transportation and marketing, among others.