there’s a number of factors to that.

Above all, we are sydney folks, and knowing your domain really helps putting on an event like this. We need to frequently meet with the venue and related services, and tat typically goes best face to face. We also need to make this kind of decision 12 months or more in advance — our large non refundable deposit was paid for 2008 before Web Directions 2007 was even held! Then there’s the fact that for us, Sydney is a known quantity — we can be reasonably confident of a turnout that means we’ll break even. Any other location would for us be a huge risk. Events like these new ones help us to gauge realistically the potential turnout in another city. Going forward, you never know.

Keep in mind too, Web Directions is just two people — we don’t employ anyone else, though we do outsource quite a few tasks — and we also run another enterprise as well — so there’s only so much we can do logistically. It’s hard to describe just how logistically complex even an event like Web Directions is.

Thanks for the query, and hope this goes some way to outlining why Sydney is the home to Web Directions — at least for now.

Then again, with great turnout in these cities, you never know!

john