Hi everyone! I am completing the Discovery to see if Vietnam is a viable location for our 2026 Coworking week. Can every team member please submit the following poll by December 19th? I understand it’s the holidays, so I will ping anyone privately who doesn’t submit in time or see this thread.
If your answer is not the first option, attending without issue, can you please share either why you would prefer another location or whatever your objection/blocker/uncertainty is? We’ve already voted to keep the dates the same, so we’ll just need agreement on the location.
Will you attend the 2026 Coworking week if it’s in Vietnam from May 22 - 29th?
Yes, I will attend without issue
Yes, I can attend in Vietnam but would prefer another location
No, I can’t attend because of a strong objection/blocker
I don’t know yet for x reason
0voters
If you have any personal knowledge or experience of staying in Vietnam, please feel free to make your own suggestions of cities or locations.
The shortest travel for me on this one is 21 hours of time with a layover. Staying that long in an economy seat is awful every time I do it. I can’t sleep and try to pass the time with coding between 30 minute (attempted) naps. I think I’d be less bothered if there were some way to go first class, but that balloons pricing and is generally not something we do.
Thing is, that’s going to be someone no matter where we choose. I think it would be great if we had some policy that the most extreme distance flights can go first class, just because of how the suffering seems to ratchet up after a certain number of flight hours. Going to Europe is unpleasant but tolerable. Going to South Africa or Asia is an ordeal.
@Fox I’m inclined to agree that the only objection we’ll find here is distance of travel. It’s a much cheaper destination to travel to than somewhere in Europe or South Korea etc. The amount saved in accommodation alone creates room in the budget. There’s always going to be long travel distances, but my main concern would be the conference goers in this case who need to go directly to Vietnam after already travelling to Salt Lake City and also giving talks etc., since we have two different locations this year, it’s a quite a big journey. I don’t think it’s a deal breaker but we can probably work on this too to make it as easy as possible for everyone.
It’s possible we’d have someone travelling from Asia to Salt Lake City then to Vietnam than back home. It’s definitely a lot of travel in a short time period.
@jordan a comment on dates: note that the conference’s last day is May 22, and it’s a 21h+ journey from Salt Lake City to Vietnam, crossing the international date line. So anyone attending the conference won’t be able to make it to Vietnam until May 24.
That would be cool, but I guess it would be cost prohibitive… compared to economy, premium economy is 2x the cost, business is 5x, and first class is 10x.
If I attend the conference, this would be the case for me. I’m not looking forward to the travel at all. Based on a quick search of fastest flights for those days, for me it would be:
Port Lincoln to Salt Lake City: 27h+, 3 layovers.
Salt Lake City to Hanoi: 21h+, at least 1 layover.
Hanoi to Port Lincoln: 20h+, at least 2 layovers.
My response to the poll itself:
If I don’t attend the conference: Vietnam will be absolutely fine. The travel is long, but travelling to anywhere from Australia is long, and I won’t need to worry about jetlag because Vietnam is only a few hours behind.
If I attend the conference: it becomes a nightmare with something like 2 days of travel, 3 days of jetlag at the conference, 2 days of travel, a week of jetlag and travel exhaustion at the coworking week, 1-2 days of travel. That’s up to 6 days travelling within 2 weeks. If I attend the conference, I would much prefer the coworking location to be closer to the conference.
This might be a misunderstanding of mine-- I thought business and first class were the same thing! Either way-- a chair I can lay back in would really help.
@samuel Yes, I think anyone attending the conference is put in a difficult position in this case. For me, I only have to travel 2 hours from Vancouver to Salt Lake, then 21 hours to Vietnam and back home of course, so it’s not too bad.
I think Vietnam is still an okay choice if it’s a minimal number of people attending the conference who are okay with it. Does anyone know when we find out which talks are accepted? I think anyone likely to attend the conference should also, in advance, be okay with going to Vietnam for the coworking week.
My only concern with Vietnam is the weather (rain & humidity); I don’t think May is the best time to go, but I’m willing to give it a shot, and I do want to see Vietnam.
Regarding the flights:
On long flights to OpenCraft destinations I usually top up the airfare myself to get Premium Economy; being 6’3”, the extra legroom is worth it, and it’s a business expense so doesn’t cost as much as if I were paying for a vacation flight.
On this trip I’m not planning to go to the conference, so what I’d do myself is something like: fly direct to Hong Kong (14h), spend a night or two there and visit some friends (a 5* hotel which costs CAD $600+/night in Jan is only CAD $200 in May), then take a 2hr flight to Hanoi (which is nothing).
@braden In my research so far, there are hot and dry options, but it’s a matter of getting everyone conveniently and cost effectively to the location. It would be ideal to add as little travel time as possible after arriving which we may have to sacrifice better weather for.
I would personally prefer to travel a little bit more for a day than be in a sticky weather for a week, if the travel options are reasonably convenient and not too costly.
Last year, we travelled too, to Normandy after landing in Paris. I would actually enjoy the chance of getting to see the country a bit more in the process and perhaps get to try out their trains??.
I traveled there with family in end of September-October 2022, and I really enjoyed the experience. It was also one of the cheapest places I’ve been to outside India.
Here is some of the costing:
We stayed at a pretty good (4-star, I think) hotel in Ha Long that cost us 63 USD per room per night.
We also did a one-night cruise that cost USD 131 per person, including a few activities.
Booked a 10-12-seater minivan with a driver for 2 or 3 days for 350 USD.
Food was also pretty cheap; you can have a meal for under 10 USD at a mid-range place.
It’s also a beautiful place that I would definitely want to visit again. The language barrier was more prominent, though, since in many of the places I went, we couldn’t communicate in English, but Google Translate helped here.
I don’t know about the climate, but I, for one, would love to go someplace nearer for once. The 2018 conference was ~20 hrs, the 2019 conference was ~25 hrs, the 2023 conference was ~30hrs, the 2024 conference was ~15hrs and this year was around 10 hrs, and the only time I didn’t have a layover. Vietnam would be around 5-6 hrs for me.
A few times I’ve upgraded the flight or legs of it at my own expense, but of course I would be open to OpenCraft doing that :-) I would say that the premium economy on my KLM flight was the most comfortable flight experience I’ve had. There were only two seats on either side, so I couldn’t see what more a business or first-class seat would offer given the price difference, and I think it only cost around 25% more. That’s the only flight that had a good premium economy, though, so it’s not a univeral thing.
If we’re looking for a milder, drier climate, northern Thailand / Chang Mai would be a prime candidate. Burning season (when the air fills with smoke from the burning fields for weeks!) peaks in March, so we’d be safe from that. Chiang Mai is a well-known hub for nomads, it’s affordable, and there’s plenty to do around the area—I’ve been there, and I quite enjoyed it! It is a much smaller/quieter city than Bangkok, surrounded by mountain ranges, rainforests, waterfalls, hot springs, and small villages. It’s also easy to fly there.
Fair point
I don’t want to jeopardize the poll results, but if people want a location that’s still affordable, with things to do and nicer weather than humid Vietnam, Chiang Mai is a better choice. I’d argue that the food is equally as good, too Bonus : I read that Indian passport holders can enter Thailand without a visa for tourism or short-term business purposes for up to 60 days.
I’m not sure, but talk proposals are open until March 6th. That likely means we’ll only find out which talks are accepted about 1.5 months ahead of the conference.
Based on a quick search of fastest flights for those days, for me it would be:
If I attend the conference, I would much prefer the coworking location to be closer to the conference.
Bonus : I read that Indian passport holders can enter Thailand without a visa for tourism or short-term business purposes for up to 60 days.