Recession puts pressure on budgets for business conferences | usatoday.com

When the commercial real estate market was booming, Margaret Bowles would attend conferences to schmooze with new business leads and complete continuing education classes. But the attorney, who has a real estate development practice in Houston, will skip the main conferences this year — the International Council of Shopping Centers' convention in Las Vegas in May and the council's law conference in October. She can't afford to pay for them.