"That's not a bad point. It doesn't actually have to be London, it
could be somewhere within the London commuter belt. Show me some
numbers, and you might be able to convince me."
The numbers for Oxford are already up here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2010/Bids/UK/Oxford
Pasted for convenience:
5.1 Coach connections to Oxford
* Central London - Oxford Tube (100 mins) [4], Oxford Espress X90 (100 mins) [5]
* London Heathrow Airport - The Airline X70 (80-100 mins) [6]
* London Gatwick Airport - The Airline X80 (120-150 mins) [7]
* London Luton Airport - National Express JL737 (110-130 mins) [8]
* London Stansted Airport - National Express JL737 (190 - 230 mins) [9]
5.2 Train connections to Oxford
* Central London (60 mins) [10]
* Birmingham International Airport (57 mins) [11]
So about an hour and a half from Heathrow. That's pretty competitive with getting the tube into the centre which is around 45 mins on a good day if I remember right. It's also certainly competitive with Cambridge US. (Many people would have had to fly into NY, got an internal flight to Boston and then a train/bus to Cambridge I'm guessing.)
Tom