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

Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

robert.ocallahan.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 180 posts

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#81

Post by cr1895 »

flukus wrote: post #71
Noseshine wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define "need". Do you need to breathe? Only if you think you need to live, and the only reason you want to live is that you are wired that way (selection bias, all those who didn't care enough have been removed). Life isn't something objective, you can just decide on what's important to you, as long as it doesn't interfere with your ability to go on living it does not matter. Some people like cats, some people like i…

Need as in "do they offer worthwhile value", which I'm sure anyone not being overly pedantic would assume. You don't gain anything by seeing a live talk that you wouldn't on YouTube for instance. It's weird that so many of us work from home but insist on traveling to see a stage show.

>It's weird that so many of us work from home but insist on traveling to see a stage show.

Isn't the interpersonal connection and networking from meeting together at a conference what's really important? The added value of a conference isn't so much what is heard from a speaker but the interaction one is afforded while there.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#83

Post by cperciva »

Symbiote wrote: post #58
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…

> already fly over Canada anyway But holding conferences in Canada would leave many people with few good options, other than to transfer in the USA. Transiting through an American airport requires a visa, and [1] had her transit visa cancelled last week, leaving her stranded in Costa Rica. It was policy at my previous employer, which had lots of work in Central America and an international staff, to avoid transiting…

As I said, Canada is not ideal for people coming from Central or South America. But I can't think of any other starting point where you'd want to transit the USA rather than taking a direct flight to Canada.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#84

Post by ctrl_freak »

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?

US CBP definitely can ask for your passcode/passwords. There was a post on HN last week about a guy who refused to turn over his passcode: https://vc.gg/blog/so-its-been-a-while.html

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#85

Post by dagw »

flukus wrote: post #71
Noseshine wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define "need". Do you need to breathe? Only if you think you need to live, and the only reason you want to live is that you are wired that way (selection bias, all those who didn't care enough have been removed). Life isn't something objective, you can just decide on what's important to you, as long as it doesn't interfere with your ability to go on living it does not matter. Some people like cats, some people like i…

Need as in "do they offer worthwhile value", which I'm sure anyone not being overly pedantic would assume. You don't gain anything by seeing a live talk that you wouldn't on YouTube for instance. It's weird that so many of us work from home but insist on traveling to see a stage show.

The talks are a side show. Conferences are about meeting people in your field (including those people who gave the talk) and talking face-to-face about all kinds of cool and interesting ideas.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#87

Post by dagw »

obstacle1 wrote: post #80
flukus wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Need as in "do they offer worthwhile value", which I'm sure anyone not being overly pedantic would assume. You don't gain anything by seeing a live talk that you wouldn't on YouTube for instance. It's weird that so many of us work from home but insist on traveling to see a stage show.

The value of conferences isn't in sitting through talks. Depending on whether or not you need conferences depends on how much you value networking. If you want to network, then yes, conferences are hugely valuable.

Not just networking. Actually talking to the guy who wrote that interesting paper gives so much more than just watching the guy talk about his paper.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#88

Post by nraynaud »

Noseshine wrote: post #49
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…

I know from a reliable source that foreign student enrollment for the spring semester is way down in one significant university in the US.

Re: Tripling Down Against USA Conference Hosting

#90

Post by chx »

lkrubner wrote: post #53
ryandamm wrote: post #38

I fear this is the warning shot across the bow of those tech executives who supported this president. First, they come for your conferences. Then, your H1B visa-holding employees. Then...? Innovation thrives on freedom. Freedom of expression, freedom of movement, freedom of markets. And tech, in its best form, is about freedom, rather than market-capture and rent-seeking. Needless to say, none of these recent develop…

Innovation thrives on the rule of law, independent courts and neutral arbiters of contracts, habeas corpus and due process, the right to a lawyer, and the right to uncoerced testimony. Consider Jethro Tull, the farmer. In 1700 he was 26 and he was taking over the family farm. He hired some local hands to seed the fields that spring. As had happened for thousands of years, the workers took bags of seed and cast handfu…

And yet, people book Uber still. Unfathomable.
Post reply on HN