> But it wold be useful thought experiment for them all to examine how their weeks would be different if they had a 20 minute walk each way each day. Effort to get decision-makers to have better empathy for the rank-and-file is certainly useful. The challenge is to make the effort practical and sufficient. By 'sufficient' I mean it has to cover enough of the core issues in ways that work. In this case, hotel choice is only part of the equation. Travel time and travel cost are two other major factors. So are additional costs, such as food in the main venue. (We had one main venue with reasonable hotel room rate but US$ 25 hamburgers...) To get better surveys, they need to be dramatically more carefully, in terms of question formulation, respondent selection and response analysis. This is not a new or unmentioned issue within the IAOC and meeting committee. What we currently do produces results dominated by well-funded, continuing participants who are highly experienced travelers; in effect, we get a tourism response from folk who are already likely to attend. Choices like BA or Sydney inconvenience essentially all attendees, in favor of goals other than getting work done. To date, there has been little interest in making the necessary effort to focus on requirements for being more inclusive. d/ -- Dave Crocker Brandenburg InternetWorking bbiw.net