I forgot to mention that... We do have a booth at this year's upcoming CES..... a Bitcoin Booth. Email me if you want to know more about that.
This!
Would you have a booth at the CES if the CES was in Hawai?
Do you think you would get the same media exposure?
Do you think you would get a lot of prospects coming at your booth?
Conferences and expos in exotic countries tend to be attended only by their own speakers and their family.
It is just a convenient way to go on holidays for free at company / tax payers expenses.
If you don't like the city.... skip that one. I listed 12 cities.... Pick one you approve of, and go.
That is just going to dilute the attendance and therefore the very interest of this conference.
There are plenty of families with kids who will be attending in Pattaya and Amsterdam. The city is only what you make it.
I think we hit the center of the problem here.
What is the purpose of organizing Bitcoin Conferences? Is it for expanding its market share in places where that matters most (certainly not Pattaya) or is it for fun and leisure?
Is the expected audiance merchants, investors and general public prospects or the bitcoiners and their families?
If it is the former purpose, your list of places is wrong. Economic / financial centers are the place where you want to organize the conferences if you want to reach a decent number of local merchants and business owners. Bitcoin is not going to get endemic because it gained wider adoption in Pattaya.
If it is the latter purpose (which it seems to be), then "Bitcoin Conference" is a misnamer that will only create confusion and bad press. "Bitcoin Offsite" would be better.
There are also plenty of people who are ecstatic that we included those two cities.
Let me doubt they are ecstatic about the opportunity for Bitcoin or business in general.
Also.... After giving it much thought, I realized that we do NOT have to pattern ourselves after DefCon or Comdex or CES.
Neither do we need to pattern ourselves on mundane associations like the Lion's Club and co.
Bitcoin is new. Bitcoin is ground-breaking. Bitcoin is global.
We can make our own new rules. ....and we have a whole planet to cater to.
You can make your own rules in your own events under your own brand.
You can call it OnlyOneTv Conference if you like or TheBitcoinShow Expo.
But please don't brand it as a Bitcoin official event.
Bitcoin is a currency and what it wants is business, not holidays.