SPSA bails on New Orleans, plays solidarity card (Signifying Nothing: how does saying nothing at all become so loud?)

Saturday, 10 September 2005

SPSA bails on New Orleans, plays solidarity card

The meat of the latest update from the Southern Political Science Association website:

Intercontinental North America has excused us from the 2006 commitment without penalty. They have also asked their other properties in the South to try to step up and host our 2006 meeting under the same contract terms that we would have enjoyed in New Orleans. Detailed discussions are underway today (Friday, September 9th) with three beautiful Intercontinental properties. On Monday, we expect to announce the signing of a contract with the new host of our January 2006 conference. You can help in this process by honoring your commitments as we honor those that the association has made. Those of you who have attended The Southern since Savannah 2002 know that attendees will have a fabulous time and an excellent conference. You risk nothing by standing by the association while we stand by our corporate colleagues.

The candidate properties would appear to be three of the following four: Buckhead (Atlanta), Dallas, Houston, and Miami.

Given the givens (geography, air and road access, and the location of the association offices), Atlanta seems to be the most likely prospect, and perhaps the allure of Buckhead to potential attendees will be higher than that of the relatively uninteresting neighborhood surrounding the Sheraton that has been the site for several past SPSA meetings. With reports of attendees already bailing, SPSA had better have the situation resolved soon.

2 comments:

Any views expressed in these comments are solely those of their authors; they do not reflect the views of the authors of Signifying Nothing, unless attributed to one of us.

1. bryan wrote @ Sat, 10 Sep 2005, 8:06 pm CDT:

I hope it is Atlanta. That would save me buckets on airfare. Even though IANAPS, I wouldn’t have bailed, understanding the extenuating circumstances. As to the thing about the hotel chain trying to relocate, that only makes sense. Another org I work with had a convention set up in the hyatt, and was rescheduled by the weekend after the hurricane at another hyatt property.

Houston would be near enough to family. Dallas is a great town, and I’ve got plenty of contacts in Fort Worth. Miami would be nice – never been there, but a former prof works there, and there are a few bloggers I’d love to hook up with while there.

As some people have been known to say, “It’s all good.” :-)

2. Scott wrote @ Sun, 11 Sep 2005, 11:12 am CDT:

Well, with the tiny travel budget that comes with life at a smaller (6–7k) university, I vote for Atlanta….also known as “the one within driving distance for me.”

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