Casual Shoes

I'm a 26 year-old conservative lawyer in Alabama heading off to a statewide bar meeting in a week or so. Consider myself very traditional despite my age. The conference is being held at the Gulf Coast, so many of the events are business casual. My wife suggests that I obtain a pair of "boat shoes" for some of these events, and that I could wear them with khakis. Boat shoes have always struck me as something that are to be worn with shorts and jeans, not khakis, especially not around a crop of attorneys. Am I crazy, or just unobservant?