Nashville is actually extremely cool, cheap and easy to navigate. Huge mall, for the Buffista Saturday Shopping Extravaganza, at Opryland.

There's a couple convention centers and a lot of hotels, and downtown is metro enough that we can have pretty much all the benefits we had in DC--except for one huge glaring error. Not much in the way of public transportation. Next year I'll probably have access to a car, so I can be all localista and take people around, but I'm like the only one in that area, so. Not particularly convenient, though restaurants are in walking distance, and the Country Hall of Fame would make for a great day excursion.

Cleveland, right on the lake; Pittsburgh really is a drop-dead gorgeous city; I'd love to go back to Santa Fe again but really, Albequerque is the cheaper place to go; Phoenix in March is fabulous - no, really; toss out the ideas, folks!

Cars are pretty cheap to rent, like ~$130 for a week, so it balances out if you have to rent a car but save money on a hotel.

The Metro was awesome. If/when I go back to DC for another round of museuming, I won't rent a car at all, I'll stay someplace in easy walking distance of a Metro station in Virginia and take the Metro everywhere.

Nilly, if you are reading, I highly recommend that you make a stop in DC if you are at all able to take the time. The museums are incredible, and for the most part are free. All the Smithsonian museums are, and there are alot of them.

I think it's important to have someone on the ground who can check out hotels, know where food, booze, and other stuff is, maybe drive people places, that sort of thing. But I don't know how many of those people we have in Midwestern cities, especially the smaller ones, let alone people who can be that point person (especially if they're the only one in town).

So, for me, at least, I'm not really comfortable suggesting/volunteering cities-not-mine.

DebetEsse, insent tomorrow. Home now.

That info can be gleaned, though, from guidebooks like Lonely Planet or Moon or whatever. Also, I'd be surprised if it got exposure to the whole group if every mid-level city doesn't have a Buffista who knows something about it.

I think it's important to have someone on the ground who can check out hotels, know where food, booze, and other stuff is, maybe drive people places, that sort of thing.

In Chicago the planner was Erin who had never been there. We had several present and former locals with knowledge, but the bulk of our transportation was public.

I think it's important to have someone on the ground who can check out hotels, know where food, booze, and other stuff is, maybe drive people places, that sort of thing.

The DC localistas were wonderful. I'm especially grateful for folks giving of their extra spare time to play with us, and I think it was a big bonus to have a sizable local contingent. That won't work for us everywhere, however, and shouldn't be a dealbreaker, but it is an advantage.

I think I phrased it poorly.

To me, the biggest advantage of localistas is the venue-scouting (which can be done by semi-locals, if they have the time and are willing).

I agree that the rest of it is nice, but non-essential, but I think having someone actually able to go to places and tell us what they look/feel like is important.

The Days Inn nearest me looks really good on pixel. It's near the lake. Not very far from downtown and clubs and all night restaurants. It has meeting facilities. It's recently renovated, yadda yadda... and it smells like a mildewed still and the rooms are laid out like a no-tell motel and just about as inviting.

IOW, yeah, what ya'll are saying.

I've noticed in some recent travels - that I can't tell anything by a picture of a hotel. Been burned a few times. Of course hotel speak is really bizzare too. Private should mean my room only -- not just blocked so only my floor shares ...

I probbably won't get over invovled in this debate over where. My only critera - after the obvious- is that public transportation, or a lot to do in the immediate vicinity be high priority. I HATE driving in cities I don't know know, but also hate to make others do the same. Serioulsy , my only real problem with the F2F in LA . If Matt hadn't gone I would have been very dependent on people that I don't know well.

Of course my ablity to go next year is already questionable. No vaction this year, and many family obligations that need to be fulfilled.