 As part of our post-convention follow-up, ICAS traditionally conducts a survey soliciting member opinion and perspective on the just concluded ICAS Convention.
This year, more than 400 of our 1,500 convention delegates participated in the survey and we thank all of them for the constructive critiques and useful suggestions.
Collectively, these comments constitute our single most important tool for improving and adjusting your annual ICAS Convention. Indeed, we have already started integrating some of these comments into our early planning for the 2009 ICAS Convention, just eleven months from now at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.
The survey responses are anonymous, so we’re not able to respond to each member individually. Moreover, some of the suggestions and concerns are shared by more than one member, so I’d like to respond to some of the comments made in our post-convention evaluation survey.
Our members were universally enthusiastic about our opening general session featuring Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman and Bill Anders. We expect to make an extended video of this entire presentation available on our website in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned for additional details.
A few members felt that the 2008 ICAS Convention felt “compressed” from the usual three and one-half days to something more like two and one-half days. This was a deliberate experiment as a result of previous concerns that the convention was too long. In our opinion, the experiment did not work and we will be returning to a less compressed, three and one-half day schedule for 2009 and beyond.
Many of you suggested that we consider non-Las Vegas locations for future conventions or that we alternate east coast/west coast. We experimented with this in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The experiment was largely unsuccessful. The majority of our members were dissatisfied. Expenses increased. Attendance decreased. So we opted for an “All Vegas, All the Time” policy that seems to be working well for most ICAS members. That’s not to say that your concerns aren’t valid. In fact, some on the ICAS staff agree with you. But we’ve attempted to bring the convention out of Vegas in the past and it simply has not worked.
The printed names on the nametags were too small and we will be correcting that problem for the 2009 ICAS Convention.
We received a few complaints that convention costs had increased too much during the last few years. As a practical matter, this is not true. Airline, restaurant and hotel room rates have undoubtedly increased incrementally each year, but the ICAS Convention registration fee has actually gone from $405 in 2004 to $370 at our 2008 Convention. (This will vary a bit depending on when you register, but both the lowest available and the average registration fees were down in 2008 as compared to previous years.) Booth fees have increased $25 every two or three years for the last 12 years, but they are still ridiculously inexpensive as compared to similar events. Some exhibitors complained that we don’t offer credentials to exhibitors as part of their booth fees. Although it is true that this is not how most other events are run, there really is no practical difference. If we were to offer credentials as part of the booth fee, we would simply increase the booth fees to accommodate our increased expenses. It is absolutely true that the cost to attend the ICAS Convention has increased over the years, but I hope that people remember that most of those additional costs are not something ICAS can control. And the costs that we can control (booth fees, registration fees) have actually been very stable for at least the last ten years.
Several members responding to the survey said that they would like to move the convention from its traditional early December dates to something in mid or late January. This is an issue that comes up every few years. As you can imagine, the shows with early shows (March, April, May, June) would like us to have the convention in October or early November so that they have more time to plan. The shows without early dates (July through November) would prefer a January convention. There is not a great time for anybody. So, instead, we must be satisfied with a schedule that is tolerable for everybody. After 40 years of visiting and re-visiting this issue, it appears that early December is the best bet.
The Rio Hotel had quite a few problems, ranging from service at the restaurants to the helpfulness of front desk personnel to upkeep and condition of the hotel sleeping rooms. ICAS is addressing those issues with hotel management. They will either be resolved before our planned return to the Rio in December of 2012 or we will find another facility in which to hold our 2012 ICAS Convention.
For the 2008 convention, we experimented with a few changes. Some of them worked; some didn’t.
• We eliminated the box lunch on the exhibit hall floor that we traditionally have offered during the first exhibit session on Tuesday. That was a mistake; lunch will be provided during the first exhibit session once again in 2009.
• We will also bring back cash bars on the exhibit hall floor.
• We moved the exhibit space draw from Thursday morning to Wednesday evening. That worked well and we will use the same schedule for the 2009 Convention.
• We made some changes in our registration process and they seemed to work. We will work out some of the small details for ’09 and expect this part of the convention to be even stronger.
• On Wednesday, we experimented with having the exhibit session in the morning and the educational sessions in the afternoon. That did not work and we will return to education sessions in the morning and exhibit session in the afternoon on the second day of the convention.
• We offered a number of advanced-level educational sessions. These were well received and we will offer similar sessions during the 2009 Convention.
• We moved the welcome reception from Monday night to Tuesday night. That change has received mixed reviews. Right now, it appears likely that we will return the reception to its traditional spot on the night before the opening general session.
• Similarly, we moved the annual membership meeting from early Thursday morning to Thursday afternoon during lunch. Attendance increased dramatically, but we had mixed reviews to the schedule change. We’ll discuss this with members during the next few months before deciding on whether or not to repeat in 2009.
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