[Air-l] Conference absenteeism?

Greetings, This was my first AoIR, and overall I enjoyed and appreciated the conference's tone and rigor, and admired the sense of warm community among participants. I'm curious if AoIR collects statistics about the rate of no-shows, and if anyone knows what the typical absenteeism rate is at other conferences. I ask because I was unexpectedly the only person (of four) on my panel to show up to present. One person did notify the conference staff that she would be unable to attend; I hope that nothing serious had befallen the other two. Is such a high absentee rate a fluke at AoIR? Do others have any thoughts on this topic? Cheers, Cassandra Van Buren University of Utah