I was only assaulted once at my last conference there (2023).
As an SF resident, 20 years, I was only stolen from twice, and one of those times was at a restaurant next to Moscone during a convention.
The data is not encouraging
San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
21–30 of 138 posts
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#22Anyone know the reasons for the cancellations? I didn't see that in the article.
In lieu of Red Hat and Meta saying why they cancelled, it would be pure speculation.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Homelessness. Theft. Human poop everywhere, safety.
It wouldn't surprise me if this were the real reason. It really jumps out at you as a visitor. I mean literally last time I was there, a dude pooped in front of me. Another person ran into a restaurant to grab my leftovers. Numerous people were cursing at their imaginary enemy. All in areas of town where visitors might be quite common. It's really quite bad and it's an impression someone ought to do something about.
West Coast city stuff then. It's everywhere.
I'm convinced there isn't any kind of immediate solution to these problems. Not that we should give up on mental health and addictions treatment. I just think the solution is way broader. Reduce income inequality, improve schools, keep up the drug treatment so the children of people with drug problems stand a chance, better research about when opiate prescriptions are appropriate (like 24 hours post surgery at most then just acetaminophen), universal healthcare and childcare to stop people falling into poverty... Then wait a good 20 years for those things to ripple through society.
I know HN loves solutioning and grand projects, but at least consider that this isn't always the way. Consider the article from a couple of days ago about letting ACL tears heal on their own rather than doing surgery. You cannot engineer your way out of everything and often it makes things worse.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#24"(...) 2028 and beyond trending to be above 90% of the average" so quite bad decline for foreseeable future. what a rhetoric gymnastic to mislead it's "ok".
Are these venues booked 5 years in advance?
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#25Anyone know the reasons for the cancellations? I didn't see that in the article.
Meta cancelled altogether, so that is probably just a cost-saving measure (Meta isn't doing too well rn).
RedHat moved their conferences to other states in the US, but still plan on holding future conferences in SF. Which, to me, also sounds like a temporary cost saving measure. I highly doubt it's because of safety or homelessness, if that was the case then they wouldn't be commiting to hold future conferences in SF.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#26Anyone know the reasons for the cancellations? I didn't see that in the article.
More expensive and a pain to go to the conference. I guess that's a big part of why they're attempting to extend CalTrain to Salesforce Transit Center at a ridiculous per-mile cost.
To clarify, this is speculation, neither the articles nor the companies have said anything of this sort.
RedHat have moved their conferences to Florida, so I highly doubt cost is a big reason. Florida itself is much cheaper, but a decent chunk of RedHat employees live in Cali, so flying them across the continent is not that much cheaper.
EDIT: I was wrong, RedHat is mostly east coast, I'm sorry.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#27Within my community (Academic) there has also been a bit of a push to hold conferences elsewhere as well. Not because of safety, just because of cost. It's a growing fortune to hold an event in SF (both event space and then hotels or Airbnb for the attendees) and it's increasingly unclear that you're getting value for the money.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
It wouldn't surprise me if this were the real reason. It really jumps out at you as a visitor. I mean literally last time I was there, a dude pooped in front of me. Another person ran into a restaurant to grab my leftovers. Numerous people were cursing at their imaginary enemy. All in areas of town where visitors might be quite common. It's really quite bad and it's an impression someone ought to do something about.
West Coast city stuff then. It's everywhere. I'm convinced there isn't any kind of immediate solution to these problems. Not that we should give up on mental health and addictions treatment. I just think the solution is way broader. Reduce income inequality, improve schools, keep up the drug treatment so the children of people with drug problems stand a chance, better research about when opiate prescriptions are appr…
This approach sounds a lot like treating a heart attack with diet and exercise. Sure diet and exercise are great, but they’re not what’s indicated while you’re keeling over. First fix the acute problem and then look work on reducing recurrence afterwards.
And of course there is an immediate solution: remove the people violating the social contract from society at large. It’s up to the people of San Francisco to either find a politically palatable way to do that or continue to live in a kind of fecal anarchy.
Edit: in case it’s not clear I’m not euphemistically suggesting incarceration as the only option, although it is one. Some kind of supervised halfway house SRO type thing would be another option among many. Drug rehabilitation also.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#29In separate news, sf chief economist is saying that everything is great [1].
Why is there such strong denial among city leadership and many individuals?
[1] https://sfist.com/2023/07/06/san-franciscos-chief-economist-...
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#30I've been to tech conferences in San Francisco (Moscone specifically), Vegas, Orlando, Chicago, and Boston.
While I'm not ordinarily a fan of Las Vegas, it is hands down the absolute best place for conferences, logistically. It's a 10 minute Uber to get from the airport to the strip. Tons of hotels on the strip. If the conference is at one strip hotel and you are staying at pretty much any other strip hotel, you can walk to your conference in 10 minutes or less, and you can complete the entire walk underground. Tons of food, cafes, etc. along the walk. Entertainment venues everywhere (obviously, it's Vegas).
SF/Moscone is the absolute worst for getting around. The other cities are ok-ish but only if you're staying at the hotel where the conference is being held.