On 13/08/2014 10:24, Melinda Shore wrote: > On 8/12/14 2:19 PM, Ted Lemon wrote: >> The reason given for not returning to Minneapolis is that only the >> core participants show up, and that cuts into much-needed conference >> revenue, making us less self-sufficient. > > Am I reading this correctly - we sometimes go to attractive > holiday destinations to pull in people who don't participate > much, as a way of underwriting meeting costs? A cheaper meeting at which only core participants turn up has obvious advantages. I'd like to see some financial modelling for meetings of say 900 people in the Minneapolis Hilton, contrasted with 1200 in more expensive locations. (At the end of the .com boom, we did hit about 2000 in Minneapolis in March 2001, to be compared with 2700 in San Diego in December 2000, so a 25% drop based on location is plausible.) Brian