Zombie,
Understand your frustration here definitely. You get a better return rate for the northern event than I do down south, although I would say the forum membership does probably skew to the north of the country, but yes it would be great to widen the net and get more people involved. I'm definitely planning on attending the northern event next year if I can.
Lack of attendance was one of the reasons I also did a survey before selecting dates and booked so far in advance, hoping more people would get involved, but not to be this year.
The effort of organising these events shouldn't be under estimated as well. I'm pretty disappointed I only got 11 people for this year's southern event, hopefully the fun of the weekend will make me want to go again for next year.
Chris