Hi everyone! This is Julia from AVA International 

-- I'm so sorry I'm only seeing this blog post now. I'll definitely make sure to check the Forum more frequently in the future. 

A few thoughts from my side: We need to consider many factors when choosing a location (and it would surprise you how few can actually meet those requirements!), e.g.:

• size of ballroom and breakout rooms, number of offices and meeting rooms, number of rooms for people to stay in
• accessibility from international airports
• cost
• safety of location and surroundings, including at night time
• ability to feed 800+ people healthy and diverse vegan meals for 3.5-4 days

Why do we choose hotels over convention centers?

Because most of our attendees really enjoy the advantages:

• Maximizing networking time in the mornings and evenings
• Shared meals as a community, where nobody has to leave the venue and worry about buying breakfast or lunch outside
• The seamless hotel infrastructure: free shuttle service to the airport, A/V service, meal functions, and lots of meeting rooms — everything is under one roof
• No time loss, delays, and additional cost due to traffic / transit and little need to orient yourself in a new city, country, and language 

Now let's look at the numbers: 

• Our cheapest tickets in the US is around $250-300. To compare: The Food & Beverage costs for us are roughly $500 per person.
• We're giving out 130-150 Travel Awards (ranging from $500 to $1,600 depending on the applicants needs) to every event. We're prioritizing advocates from outside the US to travel to our US (or Canada) event. For the other regions, we're doing the opposite: We're prioritizing people from within the region.
• Our overall cost per attendee for AVA is lower than what EAGs are spending (we're in close collaboration with them about this and other topics -- all trying to get better together!)

What's next?

• We're moving the US conference to Toronto in 2026
• We're considering an "East-only" strategy: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/julia-reinelt_canada-toronto-weareava-activity-7365004913451360257-99gO?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABtLqDsBbgsunipJthkhCEORfcyTqJMYOFY
• And: We're actually considering Mexico City for 2027! :) 

Happy to chat more about this. Feel free to reach out any time! 

Thank you, David -- See you there!

The problems we are facing are huge and I completely agree: We need to get things done. And an important way to do that is through 1. learning from each other, 2. collaborating with each other, and 3. improving collectively. 

Thank you, Constance -- I appreciate the feedback and support!