Often it's because we don't have much choice when it comes to our needs for facility size. As you have probably seen, general and breakout sessions, along with trade show/expo needs, require tremendous amounts of space. Our event there this month will be 4000+ people, and site selection is taken very seriously by our company. But many many other factors come in to play when selecting where to hold our events, chief among them availability of suitable meeting space on the dates we need.

We always have blocks at many different hotels, so our attendees have a choice, just like the one you made.

Also our spend with the Gaylord that week is approaching US$1,000,000, and negotiations on rates for services of darn near everything there can get tedious. It's expensive for meeting planners as well, we're well aware of the pain of our attendees.

A city convention center or arena is not always the best alternative to a Gaylord or other destination property, at least for us. Having everything "under one roof" provides many other benefits for us.

I should add a reminder to you to fill out that conference survey. If you have a suggestion for a better city/venue for the event that you are attending, please don't hesitate to let your meeting planner know. We crave feedback from our attendees, but the return rate of the surveys is often quite lower than we would wish. We've had to bribe people with prize drawings out of returned surveys - but hey, whatever helps get feedback.