Not to get off-topic, but I don't understand WHY it would be such a big deal to stop people from smoking in the privacy of their rooms. Restaurants, I could see. Even bars, I sort of could see. But if it's a smoking room on a smoking floor, then what's the big deal? If you object to smoking, then stay in a non-smoking room on a non-smoking floor.

Anyway, next year's get-together should be fun, if only as a scavenger-hunt type of thing, looking for a city that allows smoking, if nothing else.