London hardly needed help in this area, although its standing among conventioneers seems to be improving.
It will bring in many more conventioneers and tourists, and spur the building of new hotels and shops: Dan Doctoroff, the city's deputy mayor, says the city had to turn away 54 conventions in the past few years, worth $300m in visitor spending.The most important arguments turn on inspired guesses about how much new economic activity the NYSCC will generate.
(Chicago conventioneers pay taxes on their transport, food and hotel rooms).
In a few years gamblers, conventioneers and all sorts of tourist will be able to take a taxi or bus from Hong Kong airport straight to Macau.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing probably felt this was the least he could give the conventioneers, but his people expect opposition from the British, Irish, Spanish and Poles to eliminate any hint of majority voting on tax during the negotiations that begin in October.And on foreign policy and defence Confusion reigns on foreign policy.
Bismarck, the man who succeeded in unifying Germany, made his famously brutal comment about the decisiveness of "iron and blood" in international affairs as a rebuke to the Frankfurt conventioneers who had put their faith in "fine speeches and the votes of majorities".As the Iraq crisis gathers pace, the whiff of blood and iron in the air is already unsettling the conventioneers in Brussels.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing's real aim is to meet the most strident objections of all those governments (which must, after all, sign the document), while ignoring the cacophony of other dissenting voices.Another giant pair of obstaclesGetting the conventioneers to agree to just one document will still be very tricky.
Each time the conventioneers set to work you can feel them mentally posing for their portraits, quill pens in hand.
Passport to prosperity One for all No love lost Europe à la carte Sources ReprintsYet even as Mr Giscard d'Estaing and his conventioneers laid out their plans for "ever closer union" in foreign affairs, events outside the conference chamber mocked their aspirations.
Many conventioneers want the EU's future foreign policy decided by majority votes among EU governments.
The argument of the conventioneers was that they had considered all possible questions, and had achieved the best compromise available.
