There have been some great suggestions.  I'd like the committee to
carefully think about local airports and ground transportation options.
Reno and Lake Tahoe are nice, but extraordinarily expensive to fly into
unless you are in the Southwest.  Syracuse and Rochester NY both have
airports which have notoriously atrocious airfares in and out.
 
Philadelphia might be a good location for next time--room rates drop to
zippo over the weekend (The Four Seasons for around $150 a night!), and
there is cheap public transit (train/subway) from the airport into
midtown.
 
Dallas has a huge variety of hotels and activities, although unless the
symposium is planned for one of the downtown hotels a rental car would be
needed.  It's about $30 r/t between scheduled downtown hotels and DFW via
a shuttle.
 
Seattle would be another great option, again, SEATAC is a bit of a poke
from downtown, but shuttles are available on a scheduled basis for about
$15 r/t.
 
Boston, Orlando, Miami, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Vancouver, and
Baltimore are other possibilities.
 
As much as I'd like to visit Las Vegas again, I don't like the idea of
holding the symposium there as a fixed location.  I think it's fairest to
move it around to various areas of the country to allow people who can't
travel too far from home to attend.  I also think that the availability
of inexpensive and convenient public transportation is something else
that should be considered.
 
Anne
[Posted in FML issue 4305]