Done, finally! Yes, I’ll be attending!
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I’d be super interested in helping out with team activities, whatever the need!
@Ali I’m planning to join for the first week of the retreat (i.e., the week of the conference).
Sorry again for the delay here.
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Yay!!! This made my day 
Great, thank you! I will definitely be taking you up on this offer.
Got it. Thanks for confirming.
@pooja I’ve just noticed you are in the “Other” category on the conference & coworking attendance poll, above ^ Are you getting blockers to attend it?
Related to Xavier’s comment above, @paulo @mtyaka, do either of you have an update on whether you’ll be able to attend the conference and co-working week? I am busy looking for co-working spaces, so it would be helpful to know how many of us there will be.
@gabriel I know you said you couldn’t make the conference, but might be able to join for the co-working week. Do you know yet whether that’s the case?
@Ali thank you for the ping. I’m doing my best to organize my schedule in advance as much as possible, but currently I’m facing two impediments: 1) I need to move to a new apartment in the Summer, and the moving date is very likely to be around early July [1] and 2) I’ll be working on a consulting contract during the Summer and in-person meetings (though occasional) will be a hard requirements in July. The way things look right now based on the latest info I was able to gather, it’s actually more likely that I’ll be able to attend the conf and not the coworking week. So, to not block anything, I’d say: do as if I’m not coming at all, and I’ll update you as soon as I can, which should be at the end of Feb at the latest. Sorry if this makes things complicated for you.
[1] Curiously enough, most people who live in Quebec move in July.
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@gabriel Thanks for that info 
. Even though things aren’t set in stone, it’s still helpful for me to know your rough plans.
July sounds like it’s going to be a busy month for you! Good luck 
.
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Hi Ali, I’ll probably need a couple more months, I’m waiting for confirmation of the school calendar and holidays.
Sorry for the delay, just coming back from summer holidays
@paulo No problem - thanks for the update. And welcome back from holiday! I hope you had a nice break. 
Hey @Ali thanks for organizing this I am hopeful that I will be able to attend but I need to see through Visa application and stuff
@Ali I won’t be able to attend the conference or the co-working week this year.
@mtyaka That’s a pity - it would’ve been nice to finally meet you! Oh well, next time. 
@farhaan Welcome back! I hope you had a nice break. 
According to this visa exemption list, Indian citizens do not need a visa to enter South Africa. Hopefully that’s correct. I will be looking into the visa requirements more closely sometime soon. I’ll update everyone then.
@Ali Actually we, the “ordinary” passport holders, do need a visa. 
If you notice, the exemption is only for the diplomatic and official passports.
@kaustav Damn, I was looking at the wrong column! Thanks for the heads up. I’d better get to organizing the visa tickets soon. Watch this space. 
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Conference Planning: Visa, Flights, Mobile Data
@team Some of us need a visa to travel to South Africa, so it’s a good idea to start getting organized! I’ve created tasks for each of us for:
- Applying for visas
- Booking flights
- Arranging mobile data
If your country is not on the visa exemption list, please start the visa application process as soon as possible (it looks like citizens of some countries may be eligible for an eVisa).
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Thank you for organizing this @ali! 
To my Brazilian fellows: (@artur, @paulo)
I found the following flights from Brazil to South Africa:
LA 8058 (Mon, Thu, Sat): GRU → JNB
SA223 (Mon, Thu): GRU → JNB
SA227 (Wed, Sat): GRU → CPT
If we take SA227 from Saturday, we arrive a day earlier (30-06).
If we take some from Monday, we arrive a day late (02-07).
The only way I found to arrive at 01-07 was to go through Angola:
DTA748 + DTA579: GRU → LAD → CPT
Let me know if you find other flights!
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There are a few countries (including my own) which are Visa exempt but list ‘Visa fees.’ My guess is that this is basically an entry toll for visiting the country. I’ve got an (aptly branded) Visa business card. Do you know if I’ll be able to just swipe that on entry to pay or will I need to carry some amount of cash for on-site conversion?
@Ali Thanks a lot for organising this. I was looking at the document requirements for visit visas for conference purposes, and two documents stood out for which I might need your help (although there are ways to work-around these) :
-
Invitation letters from conference organizers. If Axim/University cannot issue these soon enough, we could apply for tourist visas and mention nothing about the conference to the South African authorities
-
Accommodation booking confirmations. Not sure what is our planned timeline for booking our Airbnbs. We could always create alternative fully-refundable bookings from booking.com or airbnb and cancel those later.