In article <2461E040-59EE-4961-A430-68CBECB949A6@xxxxxxxx> you write: >That is correct , Ole, LA was chosen, among for a number of reasons, including its archeologic significance to the early >history of the Internet. Right. I happen to be at the event now and have talked to some of the people who arranged it. They tell me that visas are always a problem no matter where you have an event and while these are unfortunate, they're about what they'd expect for a group of this size. I expect it didn't help that many of the awardees had never travelled outside their home countries before. R's, John