There are conference and then there are conferences though aren't there. 

Certainly here in the UK, there are lots of smaller regional dayschools/conferences addressing things of relatively local interest with reasonable costs. Then there are the larger national conferences which can cost anything from £25 to £100. We tend not to go for the US style uberconference, and it's often the smaller, more local or specialised conferences that are the most useful

For me the biggest obstacle to attendance is not primarily money- although it's not so much the fees as the addition of accomodation and subsistence that adds up. It's more the issue of time. If I went to every conference I wanted to I could easily be spending every other weekend attending one- however, this would be matrimonial suicide.... I am sure there are some complete conference tarts who spend their lives at these things, but I know of very few people who get to that many once life gets in the way

ButI do find them useful. Given how long sites take to come to publication it's good to see new material, get new perspectives and crucially, meet up with people working in the same area and share views informally. Skype and video conferencing will never replace the chance to share a new geophysics plot over a beer and a curry or the opportunity to test out an outlandish and possibly completely wrongheaded theory on a broadly sympathetic group of peers. 

Cheers
David






-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David L Cook
Sent: 15 May 2013 15:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Why YOU should come to SHA Quebec 2014

I lament the elite nature of our discipline. As a graduate student with small children and a partner who works full time I can barely afford to attend my local grocery store, much less a conference in Canada. As much as I would love to attend an SHA conference, or any archaeological conference, and as useful as it would be 

Best,
David L Cook

On May 14, 2013, at 9:17 PM, "Moss, William" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> See the Society for Historical Archaeology’s latest blog, “Why YOU should come to Quebec in 2014” http://www.sha.org/blog/index.php/2013/05/why-you-should-come-to-quebec-in-2014/
> 
> 
> 
> William Moss
> Conference Chair    /   47th  Conference on Historic and Underwater Archaeology
> Président du Comité organisateur   /   47e Colloque sur l'archéologie historique et subaquatique
> www.sha2014.com<http://www.sha2014.com/>