10 days in London is quite an expense unless you want to stay in a closet for the duration…
Programs always talk about the ROI from conferences – it has to be there for affs too.
If I take one staff with me and stay in a Hotel with decent sized rooms, adding in transportation (air and ground both continents), figuring that no one is going to feed us 3 meals a day for 10 days (12 days since it’s a day’s travel each way), it would cost me some 10,000 to go. I would have missed almost a half month’s worth of work. I would be lugging a lot of baggage. And London in January – not exactly a fun destination suitable for sightseeing.
Adding another conference to the already crowded conference scene isn’t going to help anyone. All the conference folks need to sit down together and hammer out a mutually agreeable schedule.
Programs are not the only ones squeezed by these schedules and incessant conferences, affiliates are too. I can see affiliates choosing one or two a year since it is so overwhelming, and programs spending more money for more conferences with even less ROI.
Just my two cents. :hattip: