General Guidelines:

Conferences try to meet the guideline of odd years meeting on the West Coast; and even years at non-West Coast locations. Feedback from attendee and exhibitor surveys indicate the preference is for the conference to move to different cities and parts of the country each year.

Acceptable conference dates are the fourth week in July and first week of August; acceptable backup dates are the third week of July and second week of August.

Cities in the USA and Canada that meet the requirements to host a conference as of 2/1/01 are:

West Coast Cities Las Vegas, NV Los Angeles, CA San Diego, CA

Non-West Coast Cities Atlanta, GA Chicago, IL Dallas, TX New Orleans, L Orlando, FL San Antonio, TX

 

Cities in the USA and Canada with current construction plans that may allow them to be included in the rotation for future years are:

 

In order for a city to be considered, they must have a convention facility that has approximately 1,000,000 square feet of exhibition and meeting space as well as at least 7,500 hotel rooms available in a reasonable proximity to the convention facility. Note that even with having the minimum space, a conference center still may not meet our detailed guidelines because of the complexity and number of programs in the annual conference.

Selection Process

Using the above guidelines as well as feedback from attendees and exhibitors on city preferences, theCAGselects two cities to send a Request for Proposal. Bids are then compared and negotiated for overall costs, both to the conference as well as to attendees and exhibitors. The city that provides the best overall package in terms of dates/space available and costs is then presented to the EC for further review and final approval.