> disclaimer, I am part of the volunteer staff that puts on SCaLE
>
>> Even a city as nice as Ottawa gets a little tiresome after several years in a row
>
> are people attending the conference to see the conference content, or to see the city?
>
>This seems like the least important reason to pick a location, especially for a FOSS conference.
As an attendee of every SCaLE thus far, that was my first thought as well.
LA is *not* a place I enjoy visiting, but it is a very practical conference location in that there are plenty of nearby LUGs, schools, and universities with interested people plus LAX is a major international airport for convenience of non-local speakers and attendees.