conference location decision

I’d like to better understand how the annual AHA conference location decision is made and have the 2020 decision making entity consider breaking the more than decade long pattern.

Is it proportional to AHA membership residence? Or the people on the committee’s hometown?  Or the trending beer style(s)?  Hop or grain farm, or maybe yeast propagation sites? Sponsor location?  What influences the decision making criteria?

Anybody on that particular decision making entity ever heard of St Louis, Atlanta, Dallas, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, Asheville, Raleigh, Charlotte, Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville, etc?  I mean you’re missing a large chunk of the country in your over decade long pattern.

You have to go back to ‘06 to find a southern location: Orlando.

A huge amount of the decision is simply pragmatic…we need to find the right size facility for the right price.  And more importantly (and difficult), the liquor laws have to allow it.  This not true in a lot of places.  For instance, before we could have it in Seattle, the homebrewers of AS had to lobby the legislature to get the laws there changed.  That’s one of the reasons we haven’t been able to do TX, for instance.  Once those 2 hurdles ate overcome, we look at where it’s been so we can move it around as much as possible.

Denny beat me to it, but my thoughts.

A lot of factors are evaluated. After each conference there is a survey that goes out to attendees. Here are some questions it asks. Rate different cities, how much are you willing to pay for hotels, transportation options (IIRC), and so on. Some cities are too expensive, NYC comes quickly to mind.

The laws have to be Homebrew friendly. This can be a deal breaker for some cities, and states. Austin was in the running one year, until the laws were examined.

The local clubs have to to be on board.

The Conf is of a size that it has to be in a convention center with hotels close by. The convention center needs open dates in June. My friends in Indianapolis would love to host it, but the convention center is booked for many years out with reoccurring conventions. The conference is of a size that convention center and local tourist boards want the business, that is a plus.

Other factors come it the evaluation. The local food and beer scene, the tourist attractions, and so on.

One thing that is evaluated is has the conference been in that area recently. Providence brings HomebrewCon to the NE for the first time in decades.

I hope this helps. I’m not on the Conference Committee, but have an idea of how it works. Gary Glass may say more.

Last time was in Manchester, NH, right down the street from where I work.  I could crash in my office and save on hotel costs :slight_smile:

Good luck getting rooms under $200 in Boston in June too.  I would love to go to Denver someday.  Too bad they don’t do big beer events there :wink:

With the boom in the economy along the Front Range, Denver might be on the edge for the frugal self funded AHA members. Never say never, as you pointed out, they have GABF, and this year’s CBC.

Those reasons enlighten the process. Thx fellas.

However, if a location was considered and an examination of the laws prohibited it, maybe an organization that lobbies legislators should address that. Hmmm… wonder what organization that would be.

it would be local groups.  The AHA can help if asked, but they can’t initiate the process.

And they do when asked…including Alabama a few years ago.

And WA and OR and…

Thanks Jeff and Denny, you guys covered the major points.

We try to move the event around the country as much as we can, but we’re definitely constrained by legal concerns, finding venues that will work for the event, and trying to keep hotel room rates reasonable for attendees.  Denver was mentioned in this thread.  In mid-to-late June, we’d be looking at room rates of $250+ in downtown Denver.

We look at the density of membership as well.  A successful Homebrew Con is dependent on attendees bringing kegs of homebrew to share with fellow attendees.  That means the venue must be within a reasonable driving distance for a large number of members.

The legal situation is tough one.  With the significant up-front cost of Homebrew Con, we can’t risk getting shut down by state alcohol beverage control.  We don’t gamble with our members money.

For Homebrew Con, we need to be able to serve unlicensed, untaxed, homemade alcohol-containing beverages along side licensed, taxed, alcohol-containing beverages.  We also need our attendees to be able to transport multiple kegs of homebrew to the venue.

Getting laws changed isn’t easy, but the AHA staff is here to help local efforts to update laws to allow for homebrew events, including Homebrew Con.  Legislators in other states aren’t going to respond well to someone from Boulder, Colorado telling them that their laws are bad.  However, they are much more likely to work with their own constituents to pass sensible legislation that could help land an event like Homebrew Con that will generate millions in local revenue.  We can help local homebrewers navigate the process of getting a bill passed, finding examples of other state laws that could be adapted to their state’s alcohol code, etc.

Disregard.

In the other thread, it was mentioned that the “middle” is defined as Pittsburgh to Denver.  That got me thinking.  Just so you know, Pittsburgh and Denver are not in the same part of the country.  Maybe if you’re dividing the map into simple blocks containing equal populations,  but not for any practical purposes.  Perhaps redefining regions would help.  For instance, Pittsburgh is a few days driving from Denver,  but realistically within a day’s drive from Boston and Charlotte (presumably regarded as belonging strictly to a coastal region) as well as Chicago (closer, but still not close enough,  to Denver.)  It should be possible for some math wiz to define (possibly fuzzy and overlapping) regions to rotate the conference among that would maximize the frequency with which any given member would be within reasonable travel time.  Better geographic modeling won’t solve the problems of liquor laws, hotel costs, and all, but could help with generating short lists that better try to even out the opportunity afforded every member.  Or I could be completely wrong and the existing system is pretty much ideal.  Just thinking.

One factor that was mentioned, but not stressed enough…

An extremely crucial factor is getting together a coalition of home-brew clubs in the region to put together a bid for the conference. Putting on a conference requires a tremendous amount of work - both for months in advance and then before/during/after the conference itself. One club, regardless of size, can’t do this alone, it really takes a group of clubs working together - with a committee to spearhead the effort.

A lot of this work has to be done before a bid can be made and considered by the Governing Committee. Typically the next year’s location is announced at the Conference. So a lot of the work needs to be done starting 2 years in advance.

And that’s if the state/local laws don’t prohibit the conference for any reason. (alcohol laws can be insane). If laws need to be changed, then you need to potentially years to the time line. So it’s a significant investment in time and effort - on the part of a large group of people. It’s damn well worth it, but don’t minimize the work that goes into putting on these awesome gatherings.

Didn’t last year have the homebrew/commercial brew mason-dixon line in the Homebrew Expo?  I felt bad for the security guard trying to explain to some of the attendees why they couldn’t bring a beer from one side to the other.

Yes, that was the case.

I didn’t realize it was like that in Portland (I missed last years conference despite living in Portland, huge bummer) but I remember 4 years ago in San Diego it was the same way.  On pro night big signs for no consumption of homebrew in this area, and vice versa on club night and also commercial to commercial… people were popping bottles in the hallway and then they couldn’t bring it into the dinner because the dinner was being handled by licensed servers and a liquor license.  They made California work but I can only imagine the hoops they had to jump through.

I’d like to echo the law issues, and really point out the “more than 1 club” aspect needed to hold the event.

Laws relating to alcohol are often asinine.  It’s even worse when you bring home brew into the mix.  Then, throw in homebrew transportation crossing state (or even NATIONAL – ask the Vancouver BC guys about bringing homebrew to NHC) borders, and you get a perfect storm of pedantry and “How dare you!!! You are but a lowly subject, you heathen” BS.

But it really took a group of us forming our “club of clubs” – WAHA (Washington Homebrewers’ Association) that made it a reality.  We were able to get most of the clubs in the state to come together to plan and execute on that plan.  Without everyone pitching in and helping, there was no way we could lobby to pass laws that enabled legal homebrew transportation, no way we could get all the committees manned, no way we could get all the big and little things done that brought the conference up to Seattle (well, Bellevue).

I made many new friends in that process, and remain close to them today, 7 years later.  It’s always like a little class reunion whenever we get together.

Thank you from someone who had a great time.

You are most welcome! Glad you had a good time!

What about the timing? Does it have to be the fourth week of June every year?  My wedding anniversary and my youngest sons birthday are that week also and every year this causes all kinds of headaches.  What are the chances of varying the timing a couple weeks in either direction?