alanv:
Certainly good to hear about congs merging in this way, but if we look at the worldwide report congs had a 2.25% increase compared with 1.5% publisher increase. Probably its a matter of the developed world shrinking whereas the developing lands are still expanding.
It's usually artificial growth. A cong with 100 publishers can split into 2 congs of 50 publishers each, but there's no growth in numbers. It's still 100!