Conferences are in flashy places to attract scientists to participate and pay increasingly higher registration fees, often higher than the air fare.

This made me think that this is actually upside down, and ultimately not sustainable with more and more scientists going on these pilgrimages. We all know how to cooperate with colleagues at far away locations, and I think that we are quite efficient at that. So remotely joining a conference should be a more viable option. Also, I will only go to conferences close to Washington, DC.