I've lured you in with this obvious, clickbait headline so I can reveal to you the "secrets" (that I'll tell anyone who asks) of how we pick future locations for ICA conferences. This may seem like a dry topic, but ICA members often have strong opinions about where their favorite associations go for conferences…and rightly so, as you're somewhat bound to follow us if you want to present your paper. It may seem at times as if locations are picked at random but there is more to the process than may be apparent from the outside. If you've ever been curious about the process, or felt the location wasn't a good choice, please read on.
For many, the annual ICA conference is a place where, decade after decade, they return to reconnect with their mentors, mentees, and colleagues; to have a "reunion" with those they went through the PhD process with years ago who have gone on to do great things in various parts of the world; to connect with a potential new research partner; or to reconnect with a former student who may need to sit down for a cup of coffee and career advice. Some of our members have even met their future spouses at ICA, and at least one family has an adult child who is now presenting her own research at ICA every year! More than any other association I've worked for or with, ICA is a true global community-one we work to make more open and inclusive every year. The annual conference is a huge part of both ICA's identity and the value proposition we give our members, so we put a significant amount of thought, care, and effort into selecting the location, assembling the content, and ensuring the logistics are as seamless as possible.
First, the basics: The Annual ICA Conference is held over five days, usually the last weekend of May. In the past, ICA only ventured outside North America every third year, but ICA now follows a general pattern of meeting outside North America at least every other year (more if we can), with those years alternating between Europe and Asia/Oceania (this pattern is changing - read on for more detail). That pattern has been disrupted, obviously, by events such as the global COVID-19 pandemic (which led me to negotiate new contracts moving our 2020 Australia conference and our 2021 Denver conference to 2024 and 2025, respectively, without cancellation penalties).
The ICA community is mostly aware of that original rotation pattern, but much of the rest of the ethos behind our current conference decision-making may seem shrouded in mystery. The purpose of this article-a wholesale revision of a less-detailed version I wrote for the newsletter in 2017-is to provide more information on the reasoning behind our decision-making and shed some light on what the future holds. As one might imagine, it is not as simple as choosing from a list of desirable locales: a place that may have been a fantastic location for your most recent holiday may not be compatible with hosting a conference of ICA's size.There are political and logistical issues to consider, and the financial constraints of our members-either working within university budgets or paying for their travel on their own-are always at the forefront of our minds. One part of my job as Executive Director is to foresee every potential issue that could affect the success of a conference and steer the ship accordingly.
How do we define success? A successful ICA conference is defined as an event in which the majority of those who want to attend are able to do so-either with or without ICA's financial assistance-and those who do attend come away from the conference with
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new personal and professional connections,
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a sense of having truly experienced the host city,
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newly acquired knowledge or insight in one or more areas of focus, and
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a strong positive intention towards continued participation in the ICA community, whether that means a student deciding to join, or a seasoned professor deciding to run for ICA office or take on a new mentorship role.
"Success" can also mean that we don't lose money on providing the conference, but as we are a nonprofit and any "profit" we make from the conference goes right back into promoting the mission, I consider breaking even or making a profit a baseline requirement, not a success metric.
Where have we been so far? A full listing of ICA conference locales can be found here). You will notice that ICA's conference was in North America much more frequently in the past than it is now.
While conference planning is largely a logistics issue and therefore handled at headquarters, the final selection of each host city is a decision made by the Executive Committee (EC) of the Board of Directors based on the advice and recommendation of the Executive Director, because the success of the ICA conference is a huge part of the association's success as a whole.
How the host city selection process works at ICA:
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The RFP stage. There are three pathways for the creation of a bid (after this first step, the process is the same regardless of how the bid originated).
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Headquarters-driven (most common): I send out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to various cities in the general region we are targeting (South America, for example) with all of the criteria you'll find in this article, plus more detail, as well as our preferred dates and the specific year we're in the market to book. These go directly to each city's Convention & Visitors' Bureau (CVB).
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Destination-driven (rolling basis year-round): CVBs often reach out to me directly to propose their city as the locale for our next conference.
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Member-driven (least common): An ICA member approaches ICA with a bid. In such cases, the Bid Committee will often write letters of support detailing their pledges of university space for pre- and post-conferences (in-kind donations) or even financial contributions from universities.
B. Analysis and presentation of the shortlist. I compare all potential sites for a given year and submit this to the EC with my recommendations for a "short list" to be explored. The EC approves the shortlist with or without modifications; this way, we don't waste resources on a trip to a city the EC would not ultimately approve.
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Site visits. I conduct the site visit of each finalist city, often bringing along one or two of my conference staff to mentor them in how to manage this process and negotiate contracts.
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Final recommendation. After the site visits, I prepare a report for the EC with my recommendation(s), sometimes for multiple years, comparing the pros and cons of each location.
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Vote. The EC votes on the recommended city for each year under consideration.
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Operationalization. I take that decision and enter contract negotiations with each destination, with the goal of a signed contract within two months.
What are the criteria on which potential cities are judged? There are fourteen major categories, encompassing 50+ individual criteria. In no particular order, the fourteen categories are summarized below (a longer version of this list, with more detail on each bullet point, is here).
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Viability of the sleeping room block in terms of quantity of rooms
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Affordability for attendees
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Availability, layout, and cost of meeting space
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Affordability for ICA
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Technical capabilities, including for hybrid sessions
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Ease of travel to and from the city
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Attendees' daily experience of the venue and city
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Sustainability
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Human rights, inclusion, and safety
10. Venue-related inclusion considerations
11. Ease of visa acquisition
12. Opportunities for cultural dialogue and exchange
13. A strong local communication community
14. The attractiveness of the destination, generally
What if you can't have all the things on the list?
No city on earth will have all the perfect conditions to satisfy each of these fourteen categories, so we try to get as close as we can, giving more weight to the more important things, of course, like attendee room rate affordability, human rights issues, inclusion and accessibility, and access to tourist visas. Sometimes, things change between when we contract the conference locale and the year the conference takes place; we deal with those eventualities as they arise.
Where are we going in the future?
ICA is nearing the end of a year-long strategic planning process that may add some additional strategy here, but for now, know that we are:
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…not giving up on a South American ICA annual conference in the next few years (more than a year of efforts to bring a Buenos Aires or Santiago conference to fruition for 2026 were ultimately not successful, but we haven't given up!)
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…working on a great new destination for ICA26 (that we cannot disclose yet without damaging the negotiation process).
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…contracted for ICA27 in Chicago, IL (US) in May 2027.
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…determining what the "sweet spot" is for the right number of hybrid rooms.
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…pressuring our hotel partners to expand their menus to provide more sustainable options.
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…thinking of our global rotation as fluid and open to substituting Global South locations where we can make them work.
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…exploring ways in which the ICA community is willing to be flexible about our established "norms" for housing, technological capabilities, etc. to further expand our footprint globally.
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…continuing to provide the robust accessibility and inclusion program we have offered since 2017.
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…continuing the absence of giveaway items that end up in landfills and continuing our on-demand ICA brand store, reducing waste by only printing items once they are ordered.
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…continuing the provision of the conference app as a central repository of all schedule information, including links to hybrid sessions.
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…continuing our partnerships with all global regional entities.
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…continuing to hone our spending for technology and other "big-ticket" items so that we remain good stewards of ICA's resources.
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…continuing our tradition of providing over US $75,000 each year in travel grants to Tier B and C scholars, students, early-career scholars, and those who identify as economically disadvantaged as a result of systemic access issues, as a member of an ethnic, religious, or linguistic minority (a group that is numerically non-dominant) or an otherwise equity-seeking group in their country of residence (regardless of tier); or undergoing a period of financial hardship.
While all of the details can be time-consuming, organizing the annual ICA conference isn't just a matter of logistics. Our job is not only to create the perfect atmosphere for the conference to take place and keep it all organized but to provide divisions and interest groups with the right tools to attract and create the best content. Putting together the program and working with divisions to make each conference the best one yet are at the heart of my work as Executive Director and the goal of every staff member here at ICA headquarters in DC. It's not just about the tourist attractions! High-quality content and the sense of community shared among attendees at ICA are what set this conference apart, no matter where it is located.
I look forward to seeing all of you in June in Australia's "Surfer's Paradise" for what is shaping up to be a very well-attended conference! For updates, don't forget to follow ICA on social media and follow the hashtag #ICA24 to see what your colleagues are buzzing about!
See you at the beach…
Laura