canyonwalker | (Reply)

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Wow, that sounds nice. I wish any industry I've worked in had a major conference in a place like Hawaii.

There's an amusing little dynamic, BTW, in how conference sponsors choose their locations.... If they're small and they want people to attend, to build up their membership and prestige, they plan conferences with desirable locations and times. Like Hawaii anytime, or Florida in the winter, or California's wine country in the summer.

This plays to the dynamic on the other side, which is that many professionals only have time and budget to attend 1, maybe 2, conferences per year. As one customer told me when my employer (years ago) had its annual conference in San Jose, "There's no way I'm spending my one ticket for the year on San Jose. Las Vegas is the minimum."

OTOH, when organizations have burgeoning membership and ample crowds at conferences, they tend to solve for cost rather than attractiveness. Those are the conferences in Orlando in the summer, New Orleans in the summer, Las Vegas in the summer, Chicago in on Thanksgiving weekend, etc. Sadly those are all places & times I've had major conferences in my industries.