Slashdot Mirror
Tech Conferences Moving North as Trump Policies Turn Off Attendees (financialpost.com)
The Collision Conference, one of North America's most influential technology gatherings, tweeted on Tuesday: "We've got some news. It's about Toronto. But we'll let Justin Trudeau tell you about it." What followed was a video in which the prime minister announced that Collision, which typically boasts 25,000 attendees, will be coming to Canada in 2019. From a report: "I'm happy you chose Toronto to host North America's fastest growing tech conference for the next three years, but I have to say, I'm not completely surprised," Trudeau said. "Toronto is a key global tech hub and an example of the diversity that is our strength." And Collision is not alone in coming north. At least two other major technology conferences have recently made the decision to relocate to Canada, lured in part by Toronto's burgeoning tech sector, but also driven by travel restrictions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, policies that have left organizers scrambling to accommodate those who can't visit the United States.
In mid-April, Creative Commons, an international non-profit dedicated to the legal sharing of digital content, held their global summit in Toronto for the second year in a row. "The political climate in the U.S., specifically the open hostility from the current administration towards many international communities, and the anxiety from those we work with about how they might be treated was definitely a deciding factor," said Ryan Merkley, CEO of Creative Commons. "What's most unfortunate is that this approach is so inconsistent with the views of the many collaborative communities we work with every day in the U.S."
At Access Now, a non-profit that organizes the RightsCon digital rights conference, Trump's travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries hit close to home. "One of our interns at the time was an Iranian citizen with a U.S. green card, and she wasn't able to leave the country to go to Brussels to help us organize the (2017) event," RightsCon director Nick Dagostino said. For years, RightsCon has alternated between San Francisco and a series of global venues, and after last year's event in Brussels, heading back to California would have been the natural choice. But then, people started telling Access Now that if the event happened in the U.S., they wouldn't show up.
In mid-April, Creative Commons, an international non-profit dedicated to the legal sharing of digital content, held their global summit in Toronto for the second year in a row. "The political climate in the U.S., specifically the open hostility from the current administration towards many international communities, and the anxiety from those we work with about how they might be treated was definitely a deciding factor," said Ryan Merkley, CEO of Creative Commons. "What's most unfortunate is that this approach is so inconsistent with the views of the many collaborative communities we work with every day in the U.S."
At Access Now, a non-profit that organizes the RightsCon digital rights conference, Trump's travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries hit close to home. "One of our interns at the time was an Iranian citizen with a U.S. green card, and she wasn't able to leave the country to go to Brussels to help us organize the (2017) event," RightsCon director Nick Dagostino said. For years, RightsCon has alternated between San Francisco and a series of global venues, and after last year's event in Brussels, heading back to California would have been the natural choice. But then, people started telling Access Now that if the event happened in the U.S., they wouldn't show up.
Give it a fucking rest already.
It was tiresome when it was B-b-b-but BOOOOSH!!!!!
We don't need them anyway.
I, for one, will have all of my conferences in Canada until the war's back on.
And WW1 for that matter. Bring back the phosgene attacks!
Screw those elitists. We don't need them. We've got coal. Beautiful clean coal! Trump/Blankenship 2020!!
I guess California lost out on this prosperous event.
Kind of funny punishing one of the states most vocal against President Trump
It doesn't matta.
Check your premises.
Are we going to get polar bear replant in grab bags? Also should we be concerned with crazy speed limits (e.g. 60 on a side streets)? Also, I don't speak French, so would I be able to book a hotel? Also, I heard they put mayo on everything and Canadian Bacon isn't real bacon.
I lived in the US (studied, then worked); I have good friends there; I have a Swiss passport, so no problem for me at all entering the US. But I have chosen not to go there anymore, for the past two years (that includes at least one technical conference per year).
Two reasons for me: #1) I don't feel safe anymore in a country that has such an unpredictable and authoritarian police force, and #2) I don't think it is ethical of me to condone the current US policies towards foreigners (of which I am one), even though I would personally (probably) would have not problems while visiting.
I would love to go back, but will not do it while these conditions last.
"One of our interns at the time was an Iranian citizen with a U.S. green card, and she wasn't able to leave the country to go to Brussels to help us organize the (2017) event,"
RightsCon was at the end of March 2017; Feb 1, 2017 (less than a week after it was issued) the administration made it clear that the temporary restrictions did not apply to green card holders. (Furthermore, two days after the order was issued, the court ruled that it couldn't apply to green card holders.)
The fact is that people almost all muslim countries on earth can travel to the USA. The ban is on a handful of countries that are rife with radical terrorists. If we were banning muslim countries we'd have banned the other 43 countries. idiots
Because so many great ideas and people come from those countries?
Not really.
The single most important reason the conference is going to Toronto is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
They're within their rights to do whatever they see fit.
But if they have problems with national and immigration security, that's entirely their problem as well.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
These are not tech conferences. Two of those are activism conferences, and Collision is near-tech.
LMAO why study coding when all you need is a different shade of skin color? Then, combined with others with slightly different skin colors, you become unbeatably powerful. How can Chinese or Japanese hackers even compete with Canada without this diversity!? They would never win any tech competiti- oh... oh....... OHHHHHHHHHHH.
Being that the loonie is about $0.78 to the greenback.
They're within their rights to do whatever they see fit.
But if they have problems with national and immigration security, that's entirely their problem as well.
In other words it's mission accomplished for Trump. He has kicked the evil coastal intellectual elites who are to blame for everything that goes wrong in the USA around to the point where they are leaving the country. Cue a large schadenfreude related endorphin rush for Trumpkins everywhere, and the attack on the education system means that the nation as a whole is being dumbified on an unprecedented scale .... but, while you applaud this like all Trumpkins, on some subconscious level you yourself still have this nagging feeling that this is mostly a bad development for the US because it ain't Trump voting high school dropouts who design computers, build power plants, railways electricity grids and stealth-fighters.
[[citation needed]]
>> Collision Conference, one of North America's most influential technology gatherings
(gaffaws)
If you have to tell people you're "influential", you aren't influential. Wake me up when RSA heads to Vancouver.
Well, she will not be able to go to Toronto for the same reason.
"Influential" my behind...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
So they want to hold their conferences in the progressive cesspool that is Toronto? The same Toronto that strips parents of their rights to opt their kids out of aggressive "sex ed" training? The same Toronto where a child can be taken away from a parent if they don't embrace their child's "gender identity?"
And they think Trump is bad?
I live "up north" and I can tell you these people are idiots.
We have just as much political bullshit up here as they do anywhere else in the world, including the US. The difference is that we don't have CSPAN on 24/7 so people just talk about it less.
The grass is not greener on the other side. Fix your shit where you live because that's the only place the world will become a better place.
Creative Commons summit and RightsCon sound like idealogy conferences. Collision Conference sounds like a business conference (for people who want to someday be involved in a genuine business).
Where are they holding conferences for people who know how to do stuff?
and yet, the ban doesn't cover any of the 4 countries where the 9-11 attackers came from (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Lebanon and Egypt). Nor does it cover the countries producing more recent terrorists (Afghanistan & Pakistan). It only seems to cover what the president would call "shithole" countries. But no, you must be right, it's all about terrorism.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
I wish I was morally flexible enough to start a PAC with the express purpose of LOCKING HER UP.
I could finally have a solid gold rocket car by Tuesday.
...still have this nagging feeling that this is mostly a bad development for the US because it ain't Trump voting high school dropouts who design computers, build power plants, railways electricity grids and stealth-fighters.
If worked for an actual engineering firm (not some silly valley app-shop startup) you might be surprised at the leanings of many engineers.
Maybe they thought he was talking about them.
IS DYING LIkE THE
Is that like an 8-track tape or maybe a horse and buggy?
Hopefully they can convince all illegals to move up north too!
This day in Slashdot history : US Losing its Scientific Dominance Posted by CowboyNeal on Monday May 03, 2004.
So as much as I hate Trump, this is not something new. He is just the one that sees that the bucket is filled faster and wil be the one that causes it to overflow.
But do not kid yourself. This is not a Trump problem, this is an American problem that is caused by both the right and right of right bi-party system.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
We do get SIGGRAPH here.
Take your silly ass conference and all its pompous self-important "influence" to the moon for all I care. Never heard of it, doesn't matter to my life. Like just about all conferences.
We know. You got founding daddy and handcock issues. BIGLY.
This is not even news, it is just a PR play by the government to distract from their failures and broken promises as well as trying to influence the upcoming provincial elections.
If Trudeau actually followed through on his two largest campaign promises then he wouldn't need to make these kind of announcements, unfortunately he backed out of election reform and is stalling on pot legalization. These are both political plays and have nothing to do with what is best for the country as now he has backtracked again and is offering election campaign reform which is bs compared to his promise of a ranked voting election promise.
I would even see this post as a slashvertizement for the canadian liberal government as two of the conferences mentioned are activist conferences with a remote link to tech and the main conference is more of a marketing conference for social media influencer's and other narcissists who constantly need to pat themselves on the back.
Something tells me if the diversity moved North like these conferences we'd do just fine.
They make it sound like Canada just lets anyone in without question. Having traveled north and talked with several Canadian couleaugs who have traveled to the USA, they seem to have a much easier time coming here than vise versa.
So you mean horseshit like the topic? Yeah we all see your tiny cocks Amerikans. We ALL see them. So tiny.
Fuck yeah! And fuck Zuck!
Trump's new plan for coal-powered smartphones is headed for so much bigly success, it will make your head spin!
Winning!
I'm a techie and I voted for Trump. Fuck you whiny cucks.
If you have to call it an "education system" something is wrong. There is no attack on education...people are just leaving the system.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
True. I have never seen left-leaning engineers. I hear they exist.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
I've been hassled entering and leaving Canada.
Been slightly hassled entering the UK.
Been groped and searched 2x leaving Prague. I think the guys must be gay for how much/long they squeezed my junk.
Prague was the worst, followed by Canada.
Zero hassle entering about 30 other countries. A few felt like I had to kick the guy to wake them up - South Africa, Spain, Japan. Most others were good enough for the theatre.
As for entering the USA - you know there's an app for that. Let's you skip both the immigration and custom's lines. 2 minutes all the way through - plus walking time and luggage pick up.
Leaving the USA, I never go through their scanners, so I get groped. But the groping there is very professional, not fun, but I don't feel violated. Better than getting cancer.
I don't go through scanners anywhere in the world. Most places do a terrible job and I'm happy for reverse discrimination.
Visas are a hassle, thankfully, with a US passport, over 100 countries don't require one in advance. Oddly, Australia does. Visa on arrival really does go into my choice for where I travel.
Mostly all these questions and searching are theatre. Trying to keep soccer mom's happy.
As an American, I grew up not only with the 'papers please' anti-communist rhetoric, but also that you didn't want the government to have more information on you than you had to. I mean remember what happened to the Jews because the Germans knew their geneaology/religion!
Photograph for ID? Ok. 'Faces can be faked now, so we need a thumbprint?' 'Pushing it, but alright' 'Full 3d facial imaging, plus both handprints and a DNA sample?' 'Papers please, Comrade!'
America has turned into everything a 30+ year old should abhor from their mandatory elementary indoctrination classes. And yet everybody in the US seems to have forgotten them.
It's like having to tell people when you're a genius.
It's not surprising considering that Trump's message to the world has been about the only thing he's been consistent on: If you're not of white European descent, heterosexual, and Christian, you're not welcome in the USA.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
And you wondered why NK wanted nukes. Yet here you are, praising that peace arose from it.
Dumbass.
Seriously. Before they told us they were influential, they would have been better off to tell us who the fuck they are. I've never even heard of this conference.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Even though I have a US passport, I find travelling to the US too stressful these days. Iâ(TM)m going to Microsoft build next week, but will avoid state side trips until shit become a little more sane there.
Funny, in the past 15 years of my career working at Fortune 50 companies I've never met any right leaning engineers, except the ones that get fired for incompetence.
the attack on the education system means that the nation as a whole is being dumbified on an unprecedented scale
I concur, the takeover by radicals intent on shouting down anybody that challenges their views with things like evidence is an attack that's seriously damaging the education system.
I'm not sure what the relevance of Trump is to this though?
"When you are good you tell people how good you are. When you are great, other people tell you how great you are."
Here's a thought, change 'news for nerds' to something more apropriate, how about 'Toe the leftward line with us' ?
...to explain exactly why virtue is a bad thing.
While not unprecendented, ApacheCon NA is in Montreal this year. Over the past few years, lots of attendees have said they are unwilling to come to the states. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this conference move to Canada permanently.
Give it a break kiddies. Trump won. Fair and square. Get the fuck over it.
FWIW I've visited the U.S.A. twice during the Trump administration. In both cases U.S. officials confirmed my identity and citizenship through my passport, confirmed that I was legit in their computer, asked me a couple of questions about my planned activities in the U.S., "Have a good trip!", off I went.
The Customs dude at Blaine, Washington asked "Idaho? I thought everybody was going to Oregon for that?" when I went to see the eclipse last August. Is this the sort of customs/border/immigration nightmare people are talking about?
...laura
The Collision conference is the only tech conference listed of any significance and surprisingly they simply stated they needed a larger venue and didn't bring politics into the discussion.
The article spins it's fake news with tag line like... At least two other major technology conferences have recently made the decision to relocate to Canada !!!! and then goes fishing for any conference it can find to support it's Headline since the Collision conference didn't fit the narrative.
I did a little research and it seems that the other two conferences referenced are geopolitical / human rights group conferences one with less than 500 attendees and another just under 2000. The sad part is that neither count as "Major technology conferences" but at least they were willing to support he political spin of the article.
That quote seems to be popping up a lot lately. I wonder why...
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
Neither have I, but a google search shows a number of statements like this one from the YC: "I went to Collision (Las Vegas) last year, and it was a waste of time and money. Same startups, same VCs, same bloggers, etc, repeating the same stuff they said in a similar conference the week before i.e. loads of words are spoken, but no real content. Add to that the junk food they served, no seating ..."
Some say it's a scam: http://anothersb.blogspot.com/...
So, good riddance.
Yet another terrible idea from democrats (socialists)! Moving conferences out of the U.S., takes all the money that would be flowing through the venue, hotels, restaurants, Uber, Lyft, etc. out of the U.S. economy and out of the hands of hardworking, yet mis-guided, democrat workers and business owners, etc. in the U.S.!!! This is yet another example of self righteous democrats Hurting the very people they claim to be helping! Yet another reason why the democrat, socialist, communist, fascist, liberal ideas ARE Wrong for the U.S.!!
Conferences bring zero money in and I'm sorry if a national security policy to prevent terrorists from killing people in our country makes some poor wee techies uncomfortable, god forbid.
This shit is anti american click bait at it's worst.
oops read the first line as "The Collusion Conference"
wondered why trump would stop that?
This year's IncestiCon will be moved from Alabama to Mar a Lago
Go to Canada. Don't come back. We don't need you.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
Most of those are software engineers.
Actual physical sciences engineers are a completely different breed.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Google his name, he's a visual basic coder who went to community college.
He probably never meets any engineers of any kind
I've been in tech my entire adult life and never heard of these people (I've seen Creative Commons come up, but not really in any substantial way (just went to their site and it's basically cancer -- too heavy and unusable). But I'm sure they are "one of North America's most influential technology gatherings" /s.
Oh look, Brussels comes up a couple times. Must be a political thing (and for some fat old men in a non-representative non-country). Makes sense.