San Antonio Conference Attendance Disappointing
SAN ANTONIO—For the second straight year, attendance at the annual AAPA conference will fall well below expectations, according to the May 25 AAPA News Conference Daily.
The academy expected about 7,000 attendees in San Antonio this week, but probably won’t get close to that number, AAPA treasurer Bruce Fichandler told the academy board of directors on Friday.
Fichandler added that it appears that attendance at the San Antonio conference will also reflect the tight economy. “We will probably be in the neighborhood of 6,000 attendees, not the 7,000 we had anticipated,” he said.
AAPA chief financial officer Bob Johnston also blamed the low attendance on “economic conditions.”
While I remain a huge fan of the AAPA conference, I think it’s too easy and too simple to attribute the conference’s low attendance the last two years to the economy.
It’s obvious that the overall economy is not in good shape, but the economy for PAs is actually doing quite well. PA salaries are up and jobs are plentiful. The PA profession is in a terrific boom period.
The economy has not seemed to hurt PA state and specialty conferences, which have been reporting record crowds over the last year.
The PA profession is changing. It’s possible that the national AAPA conference will have to change in order to remain successful.
The AAPA News Conference Daily is available online at http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/tristar/aapa052508/.