LUV-92 Theme and Speaker Quest

[jmm@lucid.com (Jay Mellman)]

I know that we have traveled fairly far down the path toward a
location for LUV-92.  I want to reiterate my concern about having
the conference in an area without a large Lisp user base.  To
summarize the most important reasons I have heard, 

  (1)  If we hold it in a location with a large user base, we
       a much better chance of getting higher attendance
       than if we hold it in a 'resort'-type city.  I would
       really like to see Seattle, but I would rather see a
       LUV that has 250 or more people attending.  There are only 2
       places with that sort of concentration, namely the San
       Francisco area and the Boston area.  

  (2)  We are more likely to encourage other, larger vendors to
       contribute to the effort if we can promise a larger turnout.  

  (3)  Travel is likely to be more expensive, especially for
       international participants, if we hold it in either of 
       the three venues being proposed.  

I've heard the discussion about Gaithersburg being chosen for its
walk-in traffic.  Who was there locally to drum up that support
for the show?  I also know that SLUG was in the Bay Area two
years ago, but we are now in the position of having learned from
the last two years and from having a large local presence here.  

Given the "less than ideal" state of the Lisp market, I encourage
us to do everything we can to leverage our existing user base.