Fun to read this thread. Was unable to make NAFO due to moving and prior committments.
Having been involved in a number of organizations and their meetings over the years I tend to perhaps oversimplify, so bear with me.
When you gather 300 people in one place, you have a far different meeting facility problem than you do for a smaller gathering of say 125 people. At the smaller number you can take over a small to medium sized motel that's relatively inexpensive and also test the limits of their kitchen or even have a meal catered in, but you can usually work things out for a reasonable amount of money.
At 300 people you're faced with renting one of the "major" hotels. These guys are always expensive, perhaps not with the rooms per say, but the catering folks are really good at being costly. After all we would all want to have a meal or two together......which is where the "gotcha" comes in. I've seen this many times over the years.
