EPCA 2009 in Berlin will clash with Germany's "Day of German Unity" national holiday, and hotel rooms are already commanding a premium one year ahead of the event.
The annual conference of the European Petrochemical Association will be held on 3-7 October 2009, coinciding with the celebration of German reunification, which is on 3 October every year.
Delegates savoured EPCA's announcement in September 2008 that the conference had been moved one week later to "avoid overlap with the Berlin Marathon", until they were faced with the evidence of hiked room rates once again.
"When will they learn?" asked one exasperated hotel booker after being told that one hotel would not accept group bookings because of the holiday weekend, and another hotel replied by email with room rates that were 45% higher than she had paid for EPCA 2007 because of the holiday weekend and "there is a Congress in Berlin."
I notice that the EPCA meeting has moved from Monte Carlo because of its connotations of luxury and high living to coincide with one of the biggest parties in Europe. Will the industry be dancing in the streets with Berliners or gazing in sullen desperation at the bottom of its stein I wonder.