National Convention 2014???
 

Chicago. The Windy City. The City that Works. Paris on the Prairie. My Kind of Town. Your hopeful host city for the 2014 National Convention.

There is a group already forming of interested students and alumni who want to bring the national convention back to this great city. Interested in getting involved or just staying up-to-date on what they're doing? Check them out on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/apo.chicago.2014

Posting to bump this up. Follow the bid for Chicago 2014 on Facebook and Twitter!

http://www.facebook.com/apo.chicago.2014
https://twitter.com/apochicago2014

Will do!

We had someone come to our sectional conference this spring to present Chicago as a host. I'm totally for it, since Chicago is a LOT closer than Anaheim! :) I think most of the brothers in my chapter supported it too, because Chicago is an awesome city!

"North" competitions...
 

The competitions for the convention in the North have tended to be the second most intense because there are pieces of four regions with reasonable convention cities in the Northern Convention area. The only one more intense is the east. (and note, the last 3 conventions in the North have been in V, IX and VIII, so Chicago can claim it is VI's turn)

The West is by far the least intense. If you want to go to a convention where the competition is the least intense, I recommend going to the 2018 convention in the South, where the 2020 convention will be decided. Every 16 years since the current rules have been setup, Denver gets the convention because it is by far the most accessible city in the West to the largest number of brothers to drive to.

Note, Presuming that Chicago wins, this will mean that the Regions which have gone longest without a convention are III and XI. (Note, if there is interest in a DC 2016 bid, I will attempt to become an advisor to the bid team)

Would definitely support and go to a DC convention as well. It's just easier for me to get to from KY. lol :) I've never been to a national convention and I'm now a new alum, so I would like to be able to attend nationals at some point in the near future.

The *really* sad thing is that I read KY *first* as Kappa Upsilon, *then* as Kappa Psi and only after a moment read it as Kentucky...

St. Louis 2014

I'm down.

"Gateway to brotherhood" as a proposed Theme, as opposed to "Service - Gateway to our Future" last time. (1990). Which is also the last time it was in Region 8.

The last Conventions in the North were Louisville in 2006 (V), MSP in 1998 (IX), StL in 1990 (VIII), Kansas City in 1982 (VIII), StL in 1974 (VIII), MSP in 1966 (IX)

The last time convention was in Region 8 was 2004 in Denver. Region VI has only had the national convention three times: 1932 (Chicago), 1940 (Indianapolis), and 1948 (Chicago). With how large of an affair our conventions are, now there are really only three metropolitan areas in the region that can support it - Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis.

You are correct, I was thinking of the piece of the Northern convention region in VIII.

What's the largest metropolitan area in Region 6 other than those three, I'm thinking either Ft. Wayne, Grand Rapids or Evansville?

Large cities with *no* conventions...
 

Of the 20 largest "Core Based Statistical areas": (so basically metropolitan areas)
1) NYC - No
2) LA - Yes (Long Beach & Anaheim)
3) Chicago - Yes
4) Dallas - Yes
5) Houston - Yes
6) Philly - Yes
7) DC - Yes
8) Miami - No
9) Atlanta - Yes
10) Boston - Yes
11) San Francisco - No
12) Riverside - San Bernadino - No
13) Detroit - No
14) Phoenix - Yes
15) Seattle - No
16) MSP - Yes
17) San Diego - No
18) Tampa - No
19) St. Louis - Yes
20) Baltimore - No.

After the big three CSAs, it goes: Grand Rapids (1.3 mil), Fort Wayne (569k) South Bend (562k), Lansing (534k), Rockford (447k), Peoria (416k), Evansville (350k). The numbers go down quite a bit when you go down to the actual metropolitan areas. Realistically, Grand Rapids is probably the only one of those that may have a facility to support convention, and that's a long shot.

It really is the size of the Facility rather than size of the city, and I think Louisville was a situation where the Facility was much larger than you would expect from the size of the city. My guess is that almost all cities with Pro (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) sports teams could hold a conventions and that most cities without could not. There are of course exceptions, Green Bay is iffy, and Louisville, Hartford, Honolulu and Las Vegas could...

APO's convention is really not that big, all things considered.

Compared to many things I attend professionally, it's really not all that big. We do have certain needs that an area under 1 million may not have, such as a hotel with the appropriate number of rooms in one facility, which I think does limit the number of cities we can go to.

That's true.

The 2014 national convention will indeed be in Chicago! Congrats to all the Brothers who worked on the bid. This also means that I will be attending my first National Convention in 2014!

Chicago just seemed more organized than either MSP or St. Louis, in addition to the fact of how long it had been since we'd been to Chicago...

That's awesome! That means I'll get to go to my first one as well! :)

Minneapolis withdrew from bidding prior to the start of Convention.

Both Chicago and St. Louis made excellent presentations and were campaigning hard all the way to the legislative floor. Congrats to both teams for their hard work and for keeping the bidding process cordial and civil by focusing on what each of their cities bring to the table.

Very cool...

I was looking forward to a 3 way race for Convention bids. Oh, well.

I do wonder who might be working on the 2016 bid. Would be back in the East. Possibilities include DC (they bid last time and lost) and Philly for locations.

As far as I can tell, the East is *always* a contested race, with convention level cities in four different regions (minimum of I:Boston/NYC, II:Philly, III: DC/Balt(?)/Charlotte(?), V:Pittsburgh). I know the National Board made a list of the cities that do qualify, but I'm pretty sure that all of them are in there.

I've heard rumors of DC, New York, and Pittsburgh. But they're all just rumors at this point.

I'm not sure that New York has bid since the 1960s, I wonder about the hotel room costs.

I should get a better feeling for whether DC will be bidding at the 85/86 sectional conference. I'm an alumnus of a school in Pittsburgh (Carnegie-Mellon), but have been in the DC area for more than 20 years...

I'd rather have it in Chicago than fricking Anaheim.

Minneapolis would have been a very good pick. I interned there last year and LOVED it. But then again, you have to consider how weather would be like at the convention. Even with Chicago, it sure is going to be one heck of a blizzard.

Part of the Reason that MSP got it in 1998 is that they had the Convention setup so that you *never* had to go outside once you got there.

Bumping this thread - who here is planning to go? :D