At Tuesday’s session of the APTA Expo, it was announced that San Diego will be the site of the next triennial trade show in 2008. The decision continues a trend of holding the trade show in the western half of the U.S. This year’s Expo is in Dallas, and the 2002 meeting was held in Las Vegas.

This year’s Expo has featured an amazing array of products and services in the Dallas Convention Center but will likely be remembered for coming on the heels of Hurricane Katrina and overlapping with Hurricane Rita. Both storms prompted a flood of evacuees into Dallas and other Texas cities.

Before the Expo began, there were concerns that the convention center might be needed to house thousands of hurricane evacuees, but that scenario did not play out. Some prospective Expo attendees chose, however, to cancel their trips to Dallas because of fears about the approach of Hurricane Rita.

Next year’s annual meeting will be held in San Jose, Calif., from Oct. 8 to 11.