Isn’t part of the attraction of attending conferences and meetings the sheer pleasure of visiting other countries? I saw more than once that the location for ‘the next meeting’ was inspired by the exotic appeal of the venue.

There are few of us that never take the opportunity of these visits to do some sightseeing, if only for a few days. I was discussing with colleagues whether to attend a meeting in Chile, until I realized that many of us were also planning a short holiday for after the meeting. This made me re-evaluate these meetings and prompted me to be very critical of what I attend: flying half way across the earth simply adds (a lot) to that equation.