Helen wrote: "Part of the thing with IOLI is that when it's on a coast, it's expensive for attendees from the opposite coast, and a full day of travel. When it moves to a more central state, it becomes a little more appealing financial (theoretically)." I guess it would be more economical if airline travel were actually based on miles traveled and gasoline the way car travel is, but air travel is based on competitive markets, so it is often cheaper to fly to the coast or certain hubs than to central states that are not part of a competitive market. For instance it can be quite expensive to fly to Iowa. In fact, I am fairly certain that it would be much cheaper for me to fly from a New York airport to LA than to go from a New York airport to Salt Lake City.
A friend did a study about where the cheapest place to fly to for a conference was, based on people coming from all over the US, and decided that Tampa and Orlando were the most inexpensively reachable locations in the US by air, overall. Another consideration in terms of participation is whether there is a large group of people near enough to come by car. If the surrounding 300 miles has other areas of lace maker concentration, that can give a boost to attendance. Helen also wrote: "And IOLI convention locations are determined by who's interested in hosting the event." Unfortunately some people are in areas of the country where there are insufficient local groups, or the groups are unable to host the IOLI convention. A decision to have two conventions a year is not really going to change that. The IOLI isn't in a position where it can determine where an area is under served by conventions and decide to hold one there. There really has to be a local group that is willing and able to host it. Sadly, some people are not going to be near a convention unless they host it. But on the bright side, they can attend a convention in another state and not feel called upon to be on a committee! Devon Who is not making any plans for Halloween (Oct. 31) that don't involve cowering in a basement after last year when Hurricane Sandy struck or the year before when we had a colossal snowstorm. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
