At 02:00 PM 8/27/01 -0400, Pickering, John (NORBORD) wrote:
>Attendance seemed down to me and the vendor show seemed less busy than
>usual but maybe it was just the sheer enormity of McCormick Place that
>seemed to dwarf the conference.

As was previously outlined, attendance was lower than past years and
obviously less than projected.  This is true with literally all other
conferences, some of which even cancelled their conference due to
a much larger drop in attendance.



>The previous Chicago venue, Navy Pier, was a far superior location and I
>doubt that this year's attendance would have overrun the place, not
>withstanding Interex's delusions of grandeur.

Conference facilities are booked 2-3+ years in advance.  Locations are
considered based upon their ability to handle the projected attendance.
Attendance is projected based, in part, by past experience.  If the
attendance figures that were projected 2+ years ago had been achieved,
and we were at Navy Pier, feedback would have been the opposite, with
many complaining about not enough space for the sessions, attendance,
etc.  In reality, the attendance was less than anticipated and hence
why reality was different than what was planned.  Furthermore, from
my view, we had many more presentations submitted than in the past
so even as early as Jan/Feb this year, all indications were that
the conference would be as well attended, if not more so than the
previous year.

So I think the assumption that the Interex group chose McCormick on
the basis of a "delusions of grandeur" is misplaced given what it
takes to look forward 2-3 years to plan an event for 10,000-12,000
people.  If you were to take the attendance history over several
years and project it to determine the space needed in 2-3 years
would you feel secure in booking a facility that could only handle
2/3rds of your projected attendance? Certainly if I or anyone for that
matter, could have projected the turn-down that has occurred this year,
we'd of sold off all our NASDAQ portfolio in January.

Bottom line is that its quite easy to arm-chair quarterback the game
after the fact, and totally different 2-3 years out when your trying
to figure-out who to draft for the team.

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