3 ms·

Here is something conferences can do: run the conference in a visa-easy country. These usually happen to be: 1. Cheap and 2. Welcoming because they need the con

by csomar 3y ago

Here is something conferences can do: run the conference in a visa-easy country. These usually happen to be: 1. Cheap and 2. Welcoming because they need the conference economic activity. Of course this is unlikely to happen because the companies running these conferences are mostly based in the EU/USA/UK and would not bother with the inconvenience.

arunarunarun 3y ago
Author of the post here. Logistically, it's a _lot_ harder for a person/team to organise a conference in a location they don't live in. There's logistics of venue, payments to vendors if you're organising food/travel/hotels, you might have volunteers for registration, information, etc. and it's easiest to find those in your local community. And finances across borders are anothe huge wrinkle. It's not impossible, but certainly adds significant complexity.
- martin8412 3y ago
  Not to mention that it might be difficult to attract attendees if it's not a somewhat exciting location.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    And if it's in too exotic a location, it's probably not super-convenient to get to and it also probably screams boondoggle to the managers who have to approve the trip. When I was an analyst we really didn't much care for when a company would put on an event at some desert resort a lot of the time (around Phoenix was generally OK--if in winter). Even with them picking up a lot of expenses, it still cost us money out of pocket and it invariably took a good additional day out of out schedules relative to just having it in San Francisco.
- csomar 3y ago
  I've been to a couple conferences in Hong Kong that selected HK exactly for this reason: Most countries don't need a visa. There is infrastructure in HK for these kind of things (and other things!). That being said, HK is not a cheap country by any stretch. There are lots of other countries that balance both cost and convenience (ie: Turkey, UAE, Malaysia, Qatar)
aranke 3y ago
I think we'll see a lot more conferences hosted in Dubai/Qatar for exactly this reason.

by csomar 3y ago

arunarunarun 3y ago

Author of the post here. Logistically, it's a _lot_ harder for a person/team to organise a conference in a location they don't live in. There's logistics of venue, payments to vendors if you're organising food/travel/hotels, you might have volunteers for registration, information, etc. and it's easiest to find those in your local community. And finances across borders are anothe huge wrinkle. It's not impossible, but certainly adds significant complexity.

martin8412 3y ago
Not to mention that it might be difficult to attract attendees if it's not a somewhat exciting location.
- ghaff 3y ago
  And if it's in too exotic a location, it's probably not super-convenient to get to and it also probably screams boondoggle to the managers who have to approve the trip. When I was an analyst we really didn't much care for when a company would put on an event at some desert resort a lot of the time (around Phoenix was generally OK--if in winter). Even with them picking up a lot of expenses, it still cost us money out of pocket and it invariably took a good additional day out of out schedules relative to just having it in San Francisco.
csomar 3y ago
I've been to a couple conferences in Hong Kong that selected HK exactly for this reason: Most countries don't need a visa. There is infrastructure in HK for these kind of things (and other things!). That being said, HK is not a cheap country by any stretch. There are lots of other countries that balance both cost and convenience (ie: Turkey, UAE, Malaysia, Qatar)

aranke 3y ago

I think we'll see a lot more conferences hosted in Dubai/Qatar for exactly this reason.