Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

arunraghavan.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 241 posts

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#71

Post by ghaff »

reshlo wrote: post #61
xg15 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds as if the current Cold War II situation keeps on escalating, people from a growing number of countries straight up won't be able to get visas for those conferences anymore.

Maybe fewer people being able to attend in person will force more conferences to take accessibility seriously. WWDC seems to have taken this to heart, for example.

In general (it's complicated and it's not as simple as have a video camera in every session) tech conferences are doing a pretty good job of getting session content online these days. And, yes, Apple invests at least as much as anyone.

It's not really a replacement for attending a conference live but it's a mostly inexpensive (money and time) way to get exposed to a lot of the formal content of a conference.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#72

Post by xvilka »

puttycat wrote: post #60

Plus, getting hundreds of people to take flights from all over the world in order to watch keynotes seems very disconnected from current state of the world. Yes, there are advantages to in-person meetings, keynotes, etc. But specifically for conferences they are undermined by the ecological price.

Conferences are almost never about talks, they are about networking. Not once great ideas emerged from casual discussion between conference attendees/speakers.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#73

Post by reshlo »

sriram_malhar wrote: post #45
xiaomayi wrote: post #37

This post might be a little biased since the author holds an Indian passport. He tend to blame the conference organizers to help Indian people to organize the transfer (VISA talking) to their conference. The thing I'd like to suggest to conference organizers is to set up an online mirror that might be used for people that, temporarily, can't get a VISA. If you blame conference organizers for some stupid rules about V…

Did you read till the end? Look at the last section titled "What can you do"; I reproduce the list here. - Announce the dates of the conference as early as possible (allows participants to book travel, visa appointments, maybe club multiple conferences) - Provide invitation letters in a timely manner - Call for participation as early as possible - Notify speakers as soon as you can This is a very reasonable ask. Each…

The text preceding that list is “if … you want a diverse audience”, which suggests they’re asking conference organisers to send personalised invitation letters to every foreigner who wants to attend, not just speakers. That could mean thousands of letters.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#74

Post by yellow_lead »

ekianjo wrote: post #63
i_no_can_eat wrote: post #25

There is another side to this. Whenever I have organized conferences, I end up receiving lots of requests for invitation letters, typically from researchers in India, for Visa purposes. I absolutely understand this, and I have always done my best to accommodate these requests. But this is time-consuming, and it is very annoying when those researchers (who are sometimes also scheduled to speak) never show up, and neve…

Make them pay in advance and reimburse the fees if they show up. Problem fixed.

This creates a new bias against people who can't lend a conference $X,XXX for a flight and hotel.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#75

Post by sofixa »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #67
resolutebat wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The four designated State Sponsors of Terrorism are Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Iran, and Syria, and due to OFAC sanctions you'll need to be very careful if you plan on inviting any of these to the US. However, China and Venezuela are not on this particular shit list. https://www.state.gov/state-sponsors-of-terrorism/

>The four designated State Sponsors of Terrorism are Cuba, Out of curiosity what's the latest terrorist attack sponsored by the Cuban state?

Operation Northwoods? Oh wait..

(Proposed false flag operation where the US joint chiefs of staff wanted to commit terrorist acts in the US and blame them on Cuba as a pretext for invading the island; it got up to the bloody president who shot it down, so it was a very serious plan)

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#76

Post by LastWeekendWas »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #67
resolutebat wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The four designated State Sponsors of Terrorism are Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Iran, and Syria, and due to OFAC sanctions you'll need to be very careful if you plan on inviting any of these to the US. However, China and Venezuela are not on this particular shit list. https://www.state.gov/state-sponsors-of-terrorism/

>The four designated State Sponsors of Terrorism are Cuba, Out of curiosity what's the latest terrorist attack sponsored by the Cuban state?

Severely embarrassing the US government?

Or maybe just providing free high quality heath care to all its citizens?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Cuba ; The World Bank acknowledges that Cuba's life expectancy at birth exceeds that of the United States

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#77

Post by vinay_ys »

i_no_can_eat wrote: post #25

There is another side to this. Whenever I have organized conferences, I end up receiving lots of requests for invitation letters, typically from researchers in India, for Visa purposes. I absolutely understand this, and I have always done my best to accommodate these requests. But this is time-consuming, and it is very annoying when those researchers (who are sometimes also scheduled to speak) never show up, and neve…

[flagged]

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#78

Post by nirbheek »

i_no_can_eat wrote: post #25

There is another side to this. Whenever I have organized conferences, I end up receiving lots of requests for invitation letters, typically from researchers in India, for Visa purposes. I absolutely understand this, and I have always done my best to accommodate these requests. But this is time-consuming, and it is very annoying when those researchers (who are sometimes also scheduled to speak) never show up, and neve…

Very strange that this is your experience, because IME as an Indian who has to apply for Schengen visas 4-5 times a year it's actually easier to get a visa for tourism than to attend a conference or for business.

You need to supply fewer documents for a tourist visa, there's lesser scrutiny, and in many countries you're more likely to get a longer-duration visa (6 months rather than exact duration) for tourism than for a conference or business.

I have been denied a visa to attend business meetings in a Schengen country despite an explicit invitation from the concerned company registered in that country simply because the consulate couldn't believe that the meetings were scheduled over the span of ten days.

They wouldn't even blink at a tourist visa for the same duration.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#79

Post by ghaff »

reshlo wrote: post #73
sriram_malhar wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read till the end? Look at the last section titled "What can you do"; I reproduce the list here. - Announce the dates of the conference as early as possible (allows participants to book travel, visa appointments, maybe club multiple conferences) - Provide invitation letters in a timely manner - Call for participation as early as possible - Notify speakers as soon as you can This is a very reasonable ask. Each…

The text preceding that list is “if … you want a diverse audience ”, which suggests they’re asking conference organisers to send personalised invitation letters to every foreigner who wants to attend, not just speakers. That could mean thousands of letters.

Almost certainly not thousands given that most large tech conference attendees are North American and European. But it's totally routine for large conference organizers to provide visa letters for attendees upon request. e.g. https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-summit-europe...

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#80

Post by vinay_ys »

fdgjgbdfhgb wrote: post #50
j16sdiz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think B1/B2 visa last of 10 years. I guess the 30 Days visa are J visa ?

I (Brazilian) had to get a J1 for a 3-month internship despite having a B1, my sister had a 6-month J1 for another exchange, so I guess it can vary

If it is work or education of any kind (internship falls into that bucket I guess), then B1/B2 won't work.
Post reply on HN