A Message From the IAFA President:
The IAFA recently sent out a referendum email to everyone in our database asking for you to weigh in on our decision to remain in Florida for our annual conference or to explore the possibility of moving elsewhere. The referendum text is included below.
The email with your link to vote has the subject line "IAFA Survey about ICFA's Geographic Future: A Referendum." If you do not have this email, and you would still like to vote, please email me directly (iafa.president@fantastic-arts.org) and I will send you the referendum survey link. Everyone who has been part of the IAFA community at any time is invited to make your voice heard in this important decision process.
Thank you!
David M. Higgins
IAFA President
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The text of the referendum email is as follows:
Dear IAFA community:
Our contracts with the Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside continue through 2027. This means that we are committed to hosting the 2026 and 2027 conferences at the current hotel.
The purpose of this referendum is to determine whether the IAFA community would prefer that the conference stay at our current location or move elsewhere after these contracts expire.
The benefits of staying in Orlando at the Marriott include keeping our costs of attendance similar to current levels and supporting scholars and creatives in the Florida area and the southern United States. If we remain at our current hotel, we hope to continue to host the conference for a similar registration fee and hotel room night costs (though we do anticipate certain unavoidable cost increases, such as a $5–10 increase in hotel room rates, in the upcoming year).
We have an exceptionally good arrangement at the current hotel for a conference of our size, and we will likely not be able to offer the same benefits for a similar price if we move elsewhere. Such benefits include a free airport shuttle; free session rooms (based on our hotel reservation blocks); generous hotel room comps; a free pre-banquet reception; a large number of spaces for various kinds of programming; food banquets and receptions; the use of our own A/V equipment; and access to local storage for our book room, registration supplies, and equipment.
The major drawback of staying at our current location, of course, is that Florida’s reactionary politics have created a hostile environment for marginalized groups (including marginalized groups who live in the state). There are many who will not travel to Florida for ethical reasons, who do not feel safe traveling to Florida, or who cannot travel there because their home institutions have prohibited funding for travel to Florida in response to the state’s policies.
There are additional potential benefits to moving elsewhere: We might explore hosting the conference on a university campus. This is one of the few realistic ways we may be able to create hybrid/online participation options, which are prohibitively expensive at most conference hotels in our price range. We might find a location that has more affordable local food options. We could also explore the possibility of a location outside of the United States where travel might be safer and easier for international participants. We cannot guarantee, however, that any of these options are realistic or that they would be affordable enough to pursue seriously (or safely for residents of the United States at this time, particularly those in vulnerable and marginalized groups).
The significant drawbacks if we leave the Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside are likely to be higher conference costs and fewer (or very different) amenities. We anticipate that moving elsewhere will create increases in registration fees, hotel room rates, and other costs to individual members (such as parking, transport to the hotel, internet, and potentially higher prices for flights). Our book room, of course, cannot travel with us, and we will not be able to continue to host a book room if we move.
If we decide to move, we will prioritize keeping costs as low as possible and finding a space that will support lively social interactions; alternate spaces, however, will create opportunities and challenges that we cannot yet anticipate. We will also strive to find creative ways to make the conference accessible for students, underfunded scholars, creatives, and international participants. To this end, we will continue to find ways to make online conference participation possible, as we have in recent years with the virtual conference, no matter where the physical conference occurs.
To be fully transparent, if the community expresses a desire to move elsewhere, the very earliest this can possibly occur would be 2028 (after our current contracts expire). It might also take longer than this to find an alternate location, since the IAFA will not commit to a course of action that would jeopardize our larger financial health and stability.
With all of this in mind, we offer a simple question in this non-binding referendum: Would you prefer that the conference stay at the Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside, or would you prefer that we move elsewhere? We also invite you to submit your own additional comments to let us know how you feel and why.
Thank you very much for being part of the IAFA community, and we look forward to hearing your perspective on this important decision. This survey will close June 30, 2025.
[Email the IAFA President at iafa.president@fantastic-arts.org if you need the survey link to vote in this referendum, or search your email for a message with the subject "IAFA Survey about ICFA's Geographic Future: A Referendum."]
The IAFA Board
