It is not only expensive for Europeans, also for those (North) Americans
who live in the big pink country at the top of all your maps. It costs
almost $1000 to send one rep from my lab to Madison (or Bloomington). (A
significant fraction of my research grant!) Since the regional meetings are
just as expensive for us as the International meetings, at least in travel
costs, financially it doesn't make much difference. However,it is important
to preserve the opportunity for informal get-togethers, and I think that
having annual 'international' meetings would kill that. Do not
underestimate the value of a less formal meeting for removing some of the
intimidation of giving your first poster or talk. If there was a big
meeting every year, I don't think that I would go as often, which would
kind of defeat the purpose of having the international meetings more
frequently.
--
Dave Pilgrim
Dept. of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, Canada
