While the high cost of living in San Francisco has famously grabbed headlines, the costs of simply meeting there, even for a few days, are becoming untenable for some.
As 9,000 official badge holders—alongside what could feel like three times as many unofficial attendees—swarmed downtown San Francisco for the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, much of the opening small talk in the hastily bedless hotel suites-turned-meeting rooms began with, “Can you believe some of these prices?”