AFS Receives Refund from Albuquerque Convention Center

During the conference and in the months following, AFS staff negotiated with the Albuquerque Convention Center, firmly communicating the unacceptable air and heating conditions our participants, guests, and staff were dealing with during the 2024 Annual Meeting held in the ABQ Convention Center. Staff negotiated tenaciously for rectification and compensation, knowing that the experience had been difficult to endure for many of our colleagues and prompted a few to leave early.

Finally, AFS staff efforts and the experience of those who attended were acknowledged by the Convention Center, and the society received a refund of over half our space rental charges, along with a letter acknowledging the variety of problems the conditions created for our participants and our staff. We appreciate the ABQ Convention Center’s gesture of resolution and acknowledge that in the moment the convention center staff were doing as much as they could to remedy the poor HVAC conditions and address the concerns AFS staff brought to them repeatedly throughout their time at the Convention Center.