I’ve started calling around for space for the Podcast & Portable Media Expo for 2006 and 2007. I don’t know where the hell the Brookings report research came from, but I can tell you my experience over the past four days. Unless I want to have the show in Cleveland over Labor Day in 2006, I have very few options. OK, that’s a bit exaggerated, but it’s just about true.

Convention space for a Friday, Saturday, Sunday event that needs 4-5 decent-sized meeting rooms and an exhibit hall with at least 35,000 sq. feet is darn near impossible to find in a major metropolitan area. Looks like I might need to stick with a 2nd tier location for 2006. Unless of course I want to take on a room block of 20,000 room nights just to get some dinky ballroom in Las Vegas…. OK, exaggerating again.

Then again, I’m pretty happy with Ontario, CA as the spot for our first show. Where else can you find a convention center literally across the street from an international airport with flights at 1/2 the cost of LAX and a Sheraton or Marriott with high-speed Internet for $90 a night? The first reaction of exhibitors is, of course, “Where the heck is Ontario, CA.” But once I explain that I am doing this for them and the attendees - to make it as easy and inexpensive as possible to fly in and stay and give my show a try, they seem to get it.

For this first show at least, the objection will never be that the hotel and flights are too expensive. Can a show like mine survive for years in a 2nd tier city or MUST it move to first-string locations to grow and prosper? I’d love to know - I just don’t want to be the test case.