The best conference that I've been to was several years ago in Raleigh, N. Carolina. At the same time in the same hotel we stayed at was being held the Miss North Carolina pagent. PASTURES OF PLENTY! I've never seen so many beautiful, statuesque women in one place in my life. Unfortunately, they all seemed to have a bulldog chaperone with them, but nothing said we couldn't look. We also found a micro-brewery/restaurant two blocks away. Why couldn't more conferences be like that?
Yours?
WALSTIB
The 1998 Smart Growth Conference in Austin was really good. So are the Annual Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute Conference in Denver.
"And all this terrible change had come about because he had ceased to believe himself and had taken to believing others. " - Leo Tolstoy
My favorite would have to be APA in San Fran back in 1994. My first APA conf as a student, and had an absolute blast with activities outside of the conference. Looking forward to going back in April!
"Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of community character is not. The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. The question is how." -- Edward T. McMahon, The Conservation Fund
When my Dept. head asks if I want to go to the regional planning conference I'll tell him no. I'm holding out for authorization to go to a conference like Tom R described. I figure any year now the National Organization for Nymphomaniac Microbrew Drinking Lingerie Models will decide to host a conference near here.Originally posted by Tom R
People will miss that it once meant something to be Southern or Midwestern. It doesn't mean much now, except for the climate. The question, “Where are you from?” doesn't lead to anything odd or interesting. They live somewhere near a Gap store, and what else do you need to know? - Garrison Keillor
By default, it would have to be my first and only APA convention, 2001 in New Orleans. (Our organizational policy is that conventions are where planners go to get new jobs.) Wasn't even able to swing the DC convention... even though I have family there and wouldn't need lodging. (Yes, I'm still bitter.)
Got my current job from an interview at the 2001 conference, so that makes it a positive. The fact that it was in New Orleans only made it better.
I'm hoping that our organizational policy changes in time for Vegas in 2008.
I would have said APA National in Denver a couple of years ago, since I got to meet many Cyburbians. Unfortunately, I also had some freaky skin ailment strike then, where my hands and feet became covered with blisters, and the rest of my body broke out in itchy rashes. Not good.
APA Orlando in 1996 was a lot of fun., even though it wasn't based downtown. The joint APA?CIP conference in Toronto provided for a good time, also.
BTW, contrary to rumors, the 2005 National Alefest will NOT be held at a bathhouse on Castro Street..
Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of the cancer cell. -- Edward Abbey
It was my first… ahh the memories! I was a first year senior in college, our class did a project, drove the 4 hours to Green Bay WI, hopped on a plane, and landed in the Big Easy. The 2001 APA national conference in New Orleans. I was a student presenter (and the youngest presenter), I got crazy drunk several night in row, and even met a girl from Frisco who shared my umbrella during a crazy down pour. We still got soaked so went back to her hotel room to dry off. NOTHING HAPPENED… other than a great back rub. *note, I am now kicking my own ass for not trying. I wonder what happened to her?
My first when in college. Seattle (early '80s). Gassed most of the time. Sold goofy bumper stickers that paid most of our expenses. Even sold one to Issie Stollman (sp?) who I think was head of AICP at the time (not that I knew who he was then). No, didn't get layed.
A nuisance may be merely a right thing in the wrong place — like a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard.
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