Stefan Mileschin

Foreigners think the US is batshit crazy

Tech conferences are thinking of moving away from the US because foreigners have no wish to travel to a country which votes for Trump, has oppressive immigration and security checks and seems to have batshit crazy rules about the right to shoot each other.

North America is a big market, but some tech conferences are considering moving to Canada instead. This is convenient for foreigners and Americans have to leave their guns at home.

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."

Collision is not alone in coming north. At least two other major technology conferences have recently decided to relocate to Canada, lured in part by Toronto's burgeoning tech sector, but also driven by travel restrictions imposed by US President Donald Trump, policies that have left organisers 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. Creative Commons CEO Ryan Merkley said that the political climate in the US, specifically the open hostility from the current administration towards many international communities, and the anxiety from those it work with about how they might be treated was definitely a deciding factor.

"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 US."

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 US 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 that 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 US, they wouldn't show up.
https://fudzilla.com/news/46219-tech...ay-from-the-us