Thanks for the response, Curt, but that still didn't do it. I'm now to limiting my variable to ConfName (in this instance: AERA) and ConfLocation (i.e. NewYork (without space just to be sure). Got the same exact results. So, in this instance, I get the following results:
Project title becomes: <<AERA>>, <<NewYork>> (using <> for the other symbols, but all other references to those two variables stay <<ConfName>> and <<ConfLocation>>.
Any other guesses?