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They already ousted the DA who's the son of convicted domestic terrorists.
San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
61–70 of 138 posts
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#62I'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…
Definitely not true that you can walk the length of the entire strip in ten minutes. The strip is not super great for pedestrians because you have to keep walking up, around, and through various escalators/bridges/casino entryways. The strip would be much more pedestrian friendly if they closed the main street to cars and let you simply walk at ground level in a direct line. Anyway, it takes over an hour to walk from…
You're right that the strip is fairly long if you look at it from the airport to downtown, but the main part of it where conferences tend to be held is maybe a little over a mile long. So I should have said a 20 minute walk.
There's definitely an indoor walkway connecting the casinos that at times is underground, at least on the southern end. I remember pre-Covid staying at the Luxor (the pyramid looking one) and the conference was 3 or 4 casinos down and I never actually had to go outside. The underground walkway was full of stores and restaurants.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#63In 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-...
In much of the SF Bay Area in general, and San Francisco city in particular, I get the impression that the current situation is very deliberate. There are loud minorities arguing about a few things but they are (just) loud minorities. The usual get elected (mostly) and merely pay lip service to these issues (that these other people are having). Otherwise, the plan is on track, things are well enough, and the voting majority merely regrets that we are not in the 90ies anymore. (Not the 80ies - too many freeways then.)
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#64I was only assaulted once at my last conference there (2023).
I was only assaulted once at my last conference there I was only assaulted once the first time I was in Vancouver, BC. What's your point?
I used to work near Moscone. I know far too many people who share OPs experience. It's a shit show.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#65Went to a conference there a few years ago and couldn't wait to leave quickly enough. No amount of natural and architectural beauty could make up for the sadness and hopelessness I saw among the homeless people on the street there. Somehow it was more sad on the background of fancy mansions on top of the hills and the rich tech companies. I lived in poor rust-belt areas and in developing countries before, but somehow San Francisco seemed sadder and more depressing than those places.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#66Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#67There’s a lot of (admittedly warranted) shade been thrown on SF here over the past two days. But putting that aside, I feel sad that remote work + the tech downturn means that employers have slashed all conference travel budgets. Conferences were a great way for me to meet professionals outside of my workplace. Even if it was just an excuse to get drunk and party, I think the industry benefitted as a whole from the n…
I thought BlackHat was already the stodgy academic version of DefCon
BlackHat is “RSA in the desert”. It’s just a bunch of ridiculous vendors shilling their snake oil.
There are a few decent talks at BlackHat, but most of it is mind numbingly stupid.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#68Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#69I'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…
I've never understood this obsession in the tech industry with holding small to medium sized conferences in major cities.
For something truly humongous you need a Las Vegas, but as a participant I'd much prefer the conference just book a hotel somewhere in the woods, or in a relatively small town.
The usual counterargument is airport connectivity etc.
But in most cases you can simply drive for X amount of time away from the urban center the airport is serving, instead of towards it, and find a perfectly serviceable venue that could host a conference of the same size.
Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Definitely not true that you can walk the length of the entire strip in ten minutes. The strip is not super great for pedestrians because you have to keep walking up, around, and through various escalators/bridges/casino entryways. The strip would be much more pedestrian friendly if they closed the main street to cars and let you simply walk at ground level in a direct line. Anyway, it takes over an hour to walk from…
Yeah, sometimes it takes 15 minutes to just walk to the casino next door.
And then another fifteen minutes to get through the casino to the conference area of the hotel. I went to reInvent once and thought I would just walk everywhere and I literally put holes in my shoes doing so.