AGU Fall Meeting draws over 20,000 geoscientists each year. Over four decades, AGU Fall Meeting has been held in downtown San Francisco. Multi-year renovations at the Moscone Center led AGU Fall Meeting to be in New Orleans for 2017 and Washington, D.C. for 2018. Venue rotation was widely lauded as these locations are convenient to fly to and accessible via Amtrak, as noted in the announcment of rotating cities for future AGU Fall Meetings.

As in 2017 AGU Fall Meeting, cost and difficulty of travel to the conference has been an attendance drain. Rotating venus opens AGU Fall Meeting to at least a 1 in 3 year or 2 in 3 year chance of attending. The value proposition of AGU Fall Meeting is distinct from discipline-specific conferences. Rotating cities maximizes value to attendees overall.