The Chicago conference figures are in. Attendance this year fell 50 short of surpassing the record-holding 2005 New York conference. Still, ICA members proved once again to be a very active group- ICA currently has 4,250 members, and a grand total of 2,197 registrants attended the 5-day conference. More than 50 percent of our membership came to Chicago!
Regionally, the United States had the most registrants with 1,531, followed by Europe with 420. East Asian registrants totaled 101, non-U.S. Americas 67, Africa and Oceania 42, and West Asia numbered 37.
This year, conference organizers moved towards creating a greener event by implementing several new options designed to make a less negative ecological impact. Almost half of the conference attendees opted to take a USB flash drive instead of a printed program. (The flash drive included all the abstracts of presented papers, making it an appealing option.) As a result half of the previous number of programs were printed. Those that were printed were on sustainable stock, and, according to the statement on the back cover, "1,005,550 BTUs of energy were not consumed, 131 lbs. net greenhouse gases prevented."A reminder to all registrants: The papers will be available online only through July. Not surprisingly, the Communication and Technology Division had the highest percentage of members in attendance who opted for the flash drives (52 percent). Mass Communication followed at 38 percent. Political Communication, Journalism Studies, and Health Communication division members numbered just over 100 each, or 37, 36, and 34 percent respectively.
Our green conference tote bags, made of recycled materials, also seemed to be well-received. The bags were designed to double as grocery bags after the conference. A task force has been created by the current administration to offer recommendations on how to further the greening of ICA and its conferences.
We would like to know what you thought. The annual conference survey is now online and open to all who attended. Survey data will be compiled by President Elect Francois Cooren, who will then take its suggestions into consideration as he plans for next year's conference in Singapore.
The survey results will be posted on the ICA conference web site, and analysis of those results will appear in the ICA Newsletter. The survey will remain online until July 31. Click this link if you would like to take it now: http://www.icahdq.org/cgi-shl/TWServer.exe?Run:CONFSURV09
One final note: our autumn membership drive will soon begin. Renewal reminders will go out at the beginning of August to allow members a 60-day period in which to renew their memberships.
