MathFest attendees were feeling the “Mad City” vibe this summer, says Bryan Lane, assistant director for meetings for the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), based in Washington, D.C. The group held MathFest, an annual summer educational event, in Madison last summer.
More than 1,400 attendees descended on the city late last July to talk about derivatives, polynomials and parabolas. MAA used the Madison Concourse Hotel as a base and reserved blocks of rooms at area hotels. The group utilized some college dorms for undergraduate student attendees, who are usually on a limited budget. Educational sessions were held at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center.
“It wasn’t just ‘MathFest the meeting,’ but it was about Madison, the destination,” Lane says. People were not only enriched by the math talks, but also by the city and its great attributes.”
The group held a gathering on the rooftop at Monona Terrace, enjoying a jazz band as the sunset glowed gold and magenta over Lake Monona.
About 30 attendees each day took tours of the facility to check out all the design features and green elements, Lane says, adding that the convention center is LEED certified.
“Our group is into trying to reduce our carbon footprint,” Lane says. “So we appreciated the green convention center and the city attitude toward being more green.”
The convention center was first designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1938. Wright approved of plans for the facility seven weeks before he died in 1959. After years of public debate, the facility opened on the banks of Lake Monona in 1997.
The Madison area had all the ‘Wright’ moves for the group; Lane says one of the best off-site venues was a tour of Taliesin, the summer home of Wright about 45 minutes away from Madison in Spring Green, Wis. Several attendees went on city tours of Madison to look at buildings designed by the architect, along with other historic buildings.
Madison is a far cry from larger destinations, where it can be difficult for CVBs to give small groups specialized attention, Lane says.
“The Madison CVB responded quickly to us,” Lane remarks. “We planned a 5K fun run/walk along the lake, and the CVB did half the work for us. We’re not the biggest group, but we didn’t feel like the small fish.”
Attendees found respite from radii by simply strolling along State Street, which extends from the Capitol building to the University of Wisconsin, ducking into brew pubs or checking out some funky art installations.
Another anonymous attendee surveyed says that Madison was by far the best place for MathFest in a decade, so it’s no wonder MAA is planning another MathFest in the city in 2012.
“That’s the highest compliment we could pay Madison,” Lane says. “It’s a great place for math, but it’s not all about the math.”
