Having been a convention chairman for other clubs, I can tell you that you absolutely can not win. If you have a convention in the middle of nowhere and have reasonable prices, you get complaints that there is "nothing to do" and your attendance suffers because there is not a lot of population near the convention site. When you have it near a city, with a large and potentially supportive collector population, people complain that it is too expensive. I attended the Rolls Royce National Meet at this same Oakbrook, IL facility (Marriott), and let me tell you that it is a great venue and the prices quoted to the AACA members are very reasonable compared to other events that have been there.