131–140 of 180 posts
Just the first ripples against the shore of what I expect to be a tsunami of unexpected consequences. Seems like a golden opportunity for another country to step up and become the "conference center of the world". I'd LOL extra hard if it turned out to be Mexico.
Spain makes the most sense. Geographically, more or less. And economically too, I think.
I think one good criterion (among others) for deciding in what country to hold a conference is the number of countries whose citizen can enter without visa. There's a list on Wikipedia that you can sort by that criterion [1]. For the USA, it's 42 (what else). Canada, 52. For Schengen area (most of EU), 92. Hong Kong, 148, Indonesia, Cambodia even more. China only 12. So, South East Asia or Europe seem reasonable on t…
As an American citizen living in Cambodia -- book events here. It's cheaper and the conference facilities are getting better every year. It's time for Americans to stop thinking all roads lead to them.
I think one good criterion (among others) for deciding in what country to hold a conference is the number of countries whose citizen can enter without visa. There's a list on Wikipedia that you can sort by that criterion [1]. For the USA, it's 42 (what else). Canada, 52. For Schengen area (most of EU), 92. Hong Kong, 148, Indonesia, Cambodia even more. China only 12. So, South East Asia or Europe seem reasonable on t…
Be careful with those numbers. While they are likely accurate for simply attending a conference, they might not be for presenting at a conference (that often changes the reason for the visit from "education" to "paid work" which can impact the need for a visa). That said, Schengen area is probably still easier than the US for attending AND presenting.
I think one good criterion (among others) for deciding in what country to hold a conference is the number of countries whose citizen can enter without visa. There's a list on Wikipedia that you can sort by that criterion [1]. For the USA, it's 42 (what else). Canada, 52. For Schengen area (most of EU), 92. Hong Kong, 148, Indonesia, Cambodia even more. China only 12. So, South East Asia or Europe seem reasonable on t…
As an American citizen living in Cambodia -- book events here. It's cheaper and the conference facilities are getting better every year. It's time for Americans to stop thinking all roads lead to them.
Americans don't think that "all roads lead to them", but America is a hugely important country with a large number of its population working in the tech field and "convenient to get to" is impossible to underestimate as a priority when organizing a conference.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Asia is on the opposite side of the world from the USA. Their cost to attend is highest, when the conference is in the USA. Check the distances on a globe -- "between the USA, Europe and Asia" is actually the Middle East. If we need to account for additional attendance from North America, then somewhere in Europe is better -- and the south or east cheaper than the north or west.
Check the distances on a globe -- "between the USA, Europe and Asia" is actually the Middle East You sure about that? Let's take Denver, Frankfurt, and Hong Kong as representatives of USA, Europe, and Asia, since they're somewhat central to the regions and have major airports. DEN-YEG: 1019 miles FRA-YEG: 4559 miles HKG-YEG: 6504 miles Total distances to Edmonton: 12531 miles DEN-DXB: 7771 miles FRA-DXB: 3012 miles H…
A big chunk of Edmonton internatonal connections route through the US airports -- SEA, MSP, DEN, ORD, SFO, etc. Unless Edmonton airport becomes a major global air hub like Dubai, this is just plain laughable. The actual distance in miles is not the primary concern by far. Not to mention the sheer uncompetitiveness of Canadian airline industry and airports in general. Canada is the most expensive air destination in the world.
http://globalnews.ca/news/2931748/international-flights-from...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commen...
I think one good criterion (among others) for deciding in what country to hold a conference is the number of countries whose citizen can enter without visa. There's a list on Wikipedia that you can sort by that criterion [1]. For the USA, it's 42 (what else). Canada, 52. For Schengen area (most of EU), 92. Hong Kong, 148, Indonesia, Cambodia even more. China only 12. So, South East Asia or Europe seem reasonable on t…
The probability of most US based people attending an international conference is dramatically lower.
I'm a bit amazed by the panic here on HN about the blocked Visa's. I mean, I do agree that the initiative is retarded, but it's not like under Obama residents from Iran or Sudan could get in an out of the USA whenever they wanted. In my last job in the Netherlands I had an Iranian colleague who tried for seven years in a row to get a Visum to go to the USA, without success. The situation was already very difficult un…
I agree this is overlooked. I know of a research group at a high-profile university in Europe that had to hide the fact they had a key team member from Iran when they applied for using a large US supercomputer. IIRC this was back in 2013. So they got a user account for one European-born team member, who gave the login details to the Iranian person who then did the actual work on the supercomputer.
Just the first ripples against the shore of what I expect to be a tsunami of unexpected consequences. Seems like a golden opportunity for another country to step up and become the "conference center of the world". I'd LOL extra hard if it turned out to be Mexico.
A few years ago I raised the idea (on Twitter) of Iceland being a nice "neutral" venue that's equally (in)convenient for both US and European attendees, very liberal and progressive, and, at the time, cheap for a Nordic country. I have since seen a handful of industry conferences take place there, but it hasn't really blown up (one reason, I suspect, is it's reasonably expensive to stay there now - Iceland's decline…
One, it's hideously expensive now, for almost anyone in the world. Second, it's incredibly small -- 320,000 people in the entire country, and maybe 220,000 of those in the Reykjavik area. Due to the "big fish in a small pond" aspect of Reykjavik being the capital, there's more infrastructure than you'd expect from a city of 200,000 people, but not that much more.
NIPS draws something like 3500 attendees now. I'm not sure there are 3500 hotel rooms in the country of Iceland. I struggled to find a venue that could host 10% of that for AISTATS. AISTATS is single-track which requires one big room, but there would have been very few options for finding a room big enough for just the deep learning breakaways at NIPS.
Aside from that, it's great. We did draw more people from the US than typical AISTATS European years had done, and it's a beautiful country for visitors to enjoy. But I don't think it's capable of becoming a major world conference center at the moment.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Be careful with those numbers. While they are likely accurate for simply attending a conference, they might not be for presenting at a conference (that often changes the reason for the visit from "education" to "paid work" which can impact the need for a visa). That said, Schengen area is probably still easier than the US for attending AND presenting.
I'm thinking if I were organizing a conference outside my country of residence, I'd keep payment arrangements for speakers & paid guests outside the conference country, and instruct speakers on The Right Things To Say on visiting the country.