Rumors have it being in Baltimore
I heard that Baltimore was ruled out as the cheapest negotiated room rate was well over $200. And once again when you sit yourself against an ocean you lose half your drawing circle. Center of Ohio would be a great choice.
The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,348-foot (411 m)-long,[2] three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound located on a plateau of the Serpent Mound crater along Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. Maintained within a park by the Ohio Historical Society, it has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of Interior. The Serpent Mound of Ohio was first reported from surveys by Ephraim Squire and Edwin Davis in their historic volume Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, published in 1848 by the newly founded Smithsonian Museum.
I don't know about areas of membership densities or hotel availability or transportation considerations but I can tell you that the second largest wood turning symposium in the United States just closed with an attendance of will over 900. That symposium is held in, wait for it....................Waco, TX.
There were folks from Utah, Chicago, and Alabama.
As important as location is I think there are several other factors to consider.
I wonder if the existence of SWAT would discourage the AAW from holding their symposium in Texas, on the grounds that many people would not have the time or resources to attend two symposiums in three months, although probably SWAT would be negatively affected more than AAW.