Will travel restrictions kill the annual meeting?

Over on Acronym, David Gammel contemplates the "no-fly annual meeting" and the end of air travel as we know it. I'm just glad that our annual meeting is several months away.

Frequent business travelers are having to give up their habit of never checking bags, but there's only so much that they'll take:

"I've put up with public inspection for the underwire in my bra, and when I protested, being told to wear a bulky sweater and go braless in the future. I've been told I can't carry on a bottle of wine as a gift at one airport, only to find it's no problem at another. I've been civil with the multiple checks of my boarding pass not more than a few feet apart. I figured this all couldn't possibly last and flying would eventually return to normal," [Samantha Johnston, 44, a Portland, Ore., grad student and moderator on the popular FlyerTalk.com message board] says. "I've reached my tipping point. I've decided not to fly until the latest Draconian carry-on prohibitions are significantly rolled back. Security has finally reached the nether regions on the idiocy graph."

Unless things improve, I'd expect to see an incrimental decrease in show traffic. Those marginal increases that are common when things are going well, those bump-ups in attendance when the show's in a great resort town or the program looks especially exciting -- I'd expect those to be gone this year.

Somehow, I don't think videoconferencing is going to take up the slack. But if I didn't think TSA would eventually flip-flop on the no-liquids-onboard policy, I'd invest in a chain of kiosks offering cheap to-go toiletry kits.

Tagged: Associations, Travel, Meetings.