Based on the ongoing events, has there been any effort to move JuliaCon 2025 to another location (preferably another country)?
What are you expecting to happen to Pittsburgh? 
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It will depend on the King’s mood.
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Pretty sure it’s too late to change the location.
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I’m not involved with JuliaCon planning, but having done a good amount of event planning in the past, I’d say that the contingency would have to be virtual at this point. Getting buy in, coordinating an alternative, negotiating with a venue, etc would be an intense undertaking for a team of volunteers given that we have less than 6 months at this point.
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In recent days there has been disturbing news about tourists traveling to the United States. And because of that, there is a boycott campaign not to attend the IETF meeting in San Francisco next year.
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There was also the case of the French scientist who was denied entry to the United States after a “random check”, which he claimed was because of his political views found in his electronic devices.
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I assume when I see an organization holding an “international” meeting in the United States that they are not serious about it being international. This has been true at least since September of 2001, and has little to do with Trump. For example, the process to get a visa to enter the US from many Latin American countries is deliberately onerous, expensive, and includes a waiting time for a required interview of over a year. (I am a US citizen.)
Yes, traveling to the US is not safe these days, see European countries, Canada issue advisories for travelers to U.S. : NPR . But for people from the global South getting a conference visa to Canada or Europe is also difficult to obtain, and will often not work.
So which country would be a good choice for an international conference where everybody would be welcome?
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I don’t know of any specific problems with conference visas. But for many if not most L.A. countries, tourist travel to Europe is as easy, or almost, as for a U.S. citizen. Really, almost any country (aside from North Korea and a few others) is easier to get into than the U.S.
The country with the world’s best beaches has a visa policy that welcomes everyone (but it won’t be cheap to get there).
The advisories in the reference above “warning their citizens who travel to the United States to strictly follow the country’s entry rules.” - I think it is generally a good idea when entering a foreign country.
For a somehow objective evaluation of risks, does anybody have any quantitative data on detentions, and specifically data on detentions without serious reason? USA are visited annually by a few dozen million foreigners, thus a divisor is approximately known, but what about dividend?
As for Seychelles - there are risks there, too. Are they lower as compared to USA? - my uninformed guess, no.
In the US, no. The concerns are about very recent political changes on the order of months, so we wouldn’t have an annual statistic even if there is someone keeping track, which is less likely given the federal job cuts. I don’t blame people for being cautious over an unstable unknown situation.
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Although this thread is labelled in the “Community” category, it has the risk of becoming rather an “Offtopic” one. The OP asked a specific question about JuliaCon, seemingly related to the rapid decline that the image of USA as a welcoming country for visitors is suffering in the present. As could be expected with such a question, the conversation is moving towards a discussion about whether that image is realistic, justified… and in a couple of further messages, maybe about the politics behind it.
I would recommend a simple answer by the organizers of JuliaCon, and proceed to closing the thread to avoid further derailing.
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I hope that little by little there will be more JuliaCon Locals, so that the Julia community will not have to rely too much on one big event.
We are working on a unified playbook for how to build your local community, how to get access to awesome speakers, and how to find spaces and funds for your meetup, so please keep an eye out for that on our usual channels!
Is there any progress in this regard?
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There is a JuliaCon Local Paris 2025.
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If some speakers are unable to travel to the U.S., but are able to present at the Paris event, JuliaCon Local Paris could be renamed JuliaCon Global Part Two.
No it can’t. It’s a JuliaCon Local conference and advertised as such. The Global event is still in Pittsburgh.
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Crypto 2025, in a similar situation to JuliaCon Global, has decided to become a hybrid event.
Given recent instances of US visa holders and residents being detained or deported by US immigration authorities, we understand that some members of our community may not feel safe traveling to the US for Crypto this year. We want to assure everyone that we will provide the option to present and attend remotely.
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