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Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

robert.ocallahan.org

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Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#41

Post by dmoy »

santaclaus wrote: post #23
cperciva wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Can I suggest Canada for this purpose? We're a cheaper conference destination than the USA, Europe, or Japan; have a fluently English-speaking population anywhere conferences would be held (most people in Montreal are bilingual); have good infrastructure; an…

> We're a cheaper conference destination than the USA, Europe, or Japan Errr, our field's major conf is in Vancouver every other year and those hotel rooms are crazy pants expensive.

OK everywhere except Vancouver is cheaper... Vancouver is special.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#42

Post by twsted »

Buge wrote: post #37
cperciva wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Can I suggest Canada for this purpose? We're a cheaper conference destination than the USA, Europe, or Japan; have a fluently English-speaking population anywhere conferences would be held (most people in Montreal are bilingual); have good infrastructure; an…

Canada can require you to give up your phone password when entering. As far as I heard, the US does not require that (but can confiscate your phone). Is there possibly another country that doesn't require it?

Kidding? Ref please?

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#43

Post by NTDF9 »

This is a great opportunity for Canadian, Australian and top European universities to step up their game.

Some universities in these regions have solid reputations but lacked the star-power of top US univs. Hosting a few ACM conferences will shoot them on top of global map.

Just checked, ACM is already on it: https://www.acm.org/conferences

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#44

Post by hueving »

xiaoma wrote: post #4
petercooper wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The next most important start-up hub after SF is Beijing. It's much more affordable than SF, but there are other concerns with hosting conferences there such as pollution, speech and media controls and a lot of regulation in general. edit: I had no idea there was so much China hate here. I'm no fan of certain policies of the government, believe me. I hate the GFW with a passion. But the entrepreneurial community is i…

I've been to a conference in mainland China. The firewall made it completely miserable (it was a tech conference). People from the west expect to be able to use Google/gmail/hangouts/github/ssh for more than 5 minute random bursts of connectivity.

You can't expect people to go to tech conferences in those garbage conditions.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#45

Post by toothbrush »

cperciva wrote: post #9
noonespecial wrote: post #2

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.

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. Can I suggest Canada for this purpose? We're a cheaper conference destination than the USA, Europe, or Japan; have a fluently English-speaking population anywhere conferences would be held (most people in Montreal are bilingual); have good infrastructure; an…

> This would be unfortunate for conference attendees from Central and South America, but they're far outnumbered by the conference attendees from Europe and Asia.

Then surely, somewhere in Europe or Asia or perhaps wherever the centre of mass of the conference participants happened to fall would be the cheapest destination? I, for one, do not live in the USA, so Canada would definitely not be cheaper than Europe to visit.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#46

Post by ganeshkrishnan »

Canada wrote: post #40
danudey wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the TSA requires airlines to list all passengers on flights travelling over US airspace, and can instruct an airline not to allow specific passengers onto that flight (or, presumably, not allow that airline to fly over its airspace).

The TSA are just the goons who search passengers at the airport. They have nothing to do with what you've talking about.

The TSA are not goons. They are just doing their job. If you have a problem with what they do, talk to their boss or vote for the right person.

Most of the TSA people I know are normal people and have families,kids and stressful job with passengers being aggressive at them for no fault of theirs.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#47

Post by Semaphor »

twsted wrote: post #42
Buge wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada can require you to give up your phone password when entering. As far as I heard, the US does not require that (but can confiscate your phone). Is there possibly another country that doesn't require it?

Kidding? Ref please?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/alain-philippon-phone-password-case-p...

For more sources google canada phone password. Tons of results.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#48

Post by cperciva »

toothbrush wrote: post #45
cperciva wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Can I suggest Canada for this purpose? We're a cheaper conference destination than the USA, Europe, or Japan; have a fluently English-speaking population anywhere conferences would be held (most people in Montreal are bilingual); have good infrastructure; an…

> This would be unfortunate for conference attendees from Central and South America, but they're far outnumbered by the conference attendees from Europe and Asia. Then surely, somewhere in Europe or Asia or perhaps wherever the centre of mass of the conference participants happened to fall would be the cheapest destination? I, for one, do not live in the USA, so Canada would definitely not be cheaper than Europe to v…

Maybe it's just a matter of which conferences I attend, but my impression is that "conference attendees per capita" is highest for the USA, lower for Europe, and much lower for Asia. If you want to be closest to people in general you'd probably aim for somewhere around Nepal (mind you, it doesn't have very good connectivity for air travel); but being closest to conference attendees is probably going to be between the USA, Europe, and Asia... in other words, Canada.

(As for the cost, when I said "cheaper" I meant in terms of the cost of conference facilities, food, and hotels. Obviously the cost of travel will depend on where someone is starting their trip.)

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#49

Post by Noseshine »

NTDF9 wrote: post #43

This is a great opportunity for Canadian, Australian and top European universities to step up their game. Some universities in these regions have solid reputations but lacked the star-power of top US univs. Hosting a few ACM conferences will shoot them on top of global map. Just checked, ACM is already on it: https://www.acm.org/conferences

Do universities that don't have to rely on the money they get form international students have the same incentives as US universities?

From what I read that's a major consideration for US universities why they want to attract foreign students. For German universities that would only be of marginal concern, even if/when they take some money from foreign students it's just pocket change and not nearly enough to finance the institution to a substantial extend. Sure they still have an incentive, but it's much less and not monetary.

I think, that's what I get from what I've been reading in comments over the years.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#50

Post by lazaroclapp »

cperciva wrote: post #9
noonespecial wrote: post #2

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.

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. Can I suggest Canada for this purpose? We're a cheaper conference destination than the USA, Europe, or Japan; have a fluently English-speaking population anywhere conferences would be held (most people in Montreal are bilingual); have good infrastructure; an…

Well, Mexico and Chile also have visa free entry into Canada now, so it would actually be a net improvement for Latin American countries as well (and I see no reason, specially with the current government, that Canada could not eventually negotiate visa-free transit with Argentina and/or Brazil next)
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