On Nov 12, 2012, at 19:09, Dave Crocker <dhc@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Some people believe that the presence of an IETF meeting serves as a kind of recruitment marketing to a region, for IETF participation. Beyond the single-meeting boost in 'local' attendance, I believe we have no data confirming any on-going increase in participation by people from that region. After 20 years, we ought to have hard data. I don't have hard data, but anecdotally, I'm not so sure about that. Historically, while the IETF still as in its growth phase in the 1990s, the touring around was useful. I'd even say the 2002 (JP) and 2004 (KR) meetings were useful for broadening the base. After that, not so much. (Another aspect beyond capturing regular attendees, of course, is gaining local mindshare and relevance. Being a German, I do expect the Berlin meeting to help in that dimension, as did Maastricht (a bit less so), Munich, and Amsterdam. Similarly, I think the meetings in Prague were very useful for visibility in other central European countries. Hitting the focal points of economy and culture is more important here than a close-by airport. There *is* an -- indirect and more long-term -- effect of this on participation from the parts of the world we reach this way.) Grüße, Carsten