2004 Annual Gathering of American Mensa

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Program book cover

The 2004 Annual Gathering of American Mensa was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel. Due to hotel and union rules, hospitality was conducted with a more limited selection of food than had been typical of American AGs to this point, although organizers stated that they in fact had managed to negotiate concessions unheard-of for the Las Vegas hotel community in order to supply the degree of hospitality food they did. Despite advance publicity explaining this limited food service, there have still been a number of complaints during and after the gathering about hospitality food, with some attendees comparing it to the 1986 New York "Karen Carpenter Memorial AG".

Discussion and debate regarding the location of AGs has centered on the question of whether they should be held in "destination cities" where members might want to go anyway, and the AG gives them the excuse, versus holding them in less "glamorous" places because many members go to meet other Mensans and participate in events at the AG, and seldom leave the hotel anyway. Several recent AGs, including this one, have taken the "destination city" approach, resulting in high attendance, but criticism on the grounds of expensive hotel rooms, overly restrictive rules, and less opportunity for social interaction because many attendees were out enjoying other attractions of the host city.

|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
2003: St. Paul, Minnesota | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" | Annual Gathering of American Mensa
2004 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
2005: New Orleans