Hi @gabriel, from my side, I don’t have US visa, and after researching it, here in Peru, the visa interview appointment is scheduled an average of 10 months in advance. I think it’s impossible for me to go to the conference, but I am going to Vietnam
Before I can book mine I will need to figure out where I will be leaving from, which is still uncertain. So I will book closer to the date in any case.
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Not sure if this is the right thread to post, but my talk Open edX and the Professional Training Opportunity: What Is Holding Us Back and How We Move Forward was accepted for the conference 
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My talk, “Modern XBlock Development: React & Next-Gen Components for Open edX” has been accepted!! The problem is, as I mentioned before, it’s very unlikely that I’ll be able to get the visa by then 
. I’ve read about the emergency appointment, but there’s a good chance it won’t qualify as an emergency or that I won’t get the appointment in time. I’m not sure about taking the risk.
@Fox @gabriel @antoviaque What do you think?
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@ChrisChV Confirm acceptance, attempt the emergency appointment, and if it fails, we’ll have you work with someone who is going to be there so you can hand it over.
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My talk The Upgrade Dilemma: Lessons from Real-World Open edX Site Migrations has been accepted for the conference.
I am looking into the Visa situation now. Will post an update soon.
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My and @Agrendalath’s talk “Making Pathways a Reality in the Open edX® Platform” has been accepted 
I’ve also been asked to help with ideation and presentation of the Product Workshop as it relates to our Pathways work. In light of this, how is budget applied?
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The visa situation in Melbourne doesn’t look good.
However, slots are added randomly. So according to multiple Reddit threads, checking everyday and refreshing the page multiple times during the day can help. People have apparently tried across the country in Perth and have found success in moving an appointment from April 2027 to June 2026.
This doesn’t really give me much hope.
@gabriel any advice?
Worst case if I can’t make it I think the talk is still presentable by @Fox as the talk is based on idea by him and @jordan.
My lightning talk on “Themable XBlocks with Runtime Theming” has been accepted. That said I’m not comfortable with travelling to the US given the current climate. I can prepare a thorough writeup of the points for my talk and pass it on to whoever can present it for me.
My talk “Using AI in Open edX Today: Practical Tools for Course Authors” has been accepted.
I already have a valid US visa.
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That’s unfortunate, @tecoholic. It looks like your best option is to have someone replace you!
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My talk has been accepted (yay!) but as discussed, I can’t present it. @antoviaque are you still up for it?
For those who are unsure about their visa situation but think they have a fair chance of getting it on time: my suggestion for your flights is to book a refundable flight (or a flight with “Cancel For Any Reason” insurance) from your city → Salt Lake City → Da Nang. If the visa doesn’t come through, cancel and book a direct flight from your city to Da Nang. It may cost more upfront, but it’s the best option that keeps you from having to cancel from the start.
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You can clone this ticket to book your flight, or let me know if I should do it for you. Please let me know if you have any questions !
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Wow it looks like so many of us had our talks accepted! Well done everyone (and @Fox for guiding the initial process).
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Hi everyone!
I want to be transparent about our talk selection process. We accepted 9 talks from OpenCraft, as follows:
| Title | Track | Session Type | FirstName | LastName |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Making Pathways a Reality in the Open edX® Platform | Product Development and Usage | Talk (30 mins) | Cassandra Piotr | Zamparini Surowiec |
| Open edX in Action: 10 Stories of Flexibility and Global Impact | Case Studies | Talk (30 mins) | Ali | Hugo |
| Using AI in Open edX Today: Practical Tools for Course Authors | Pedagogy and Instructional Design | Talk (30 mins) | Pooja | Kulkarni |
| Building Sustainable Open edX Businesses: A 10+ Year Playbook | Case Studies | Talk (30 mins) | Gabriel | D’Amours |
| Modern XBlock Development: React & Next-Gen Components for Open edX | Developing and Operating | Talk (30 mins) | Christofer Fabian | Chavez Carazas |
| The Upgrade Dilemma: Lessons from Real-World Open edX Site Migrations | Product Development and Usage | Talk (30 mins) | Arunmozhi | Periasamy |
| The Open edX Platform and the Professional Training Opportunity: What’s Holding Us Back | Case Studies | Talk (30 mins) | Jordan | Saniuk |
| Themable XBlocks with Runtime Theming | Developing and Operating | Lightning Talk (10 mins) | Kshitij | Sobti |
| Design Tokens: Plugin Slots but for your CSS | Developing and Operating | Talk (30 mins) | Kaustav | Banerjee |
We’re thrilled to have been able to accept so many of your talks! However, we do have a concern if many of you are unavailable to give your talks. We want to ensure all talks are given by people who are experts in, and involved in, the projects/subjects of the talks. If you are going to be unavailable to give your talk, please do check in with me to discuss if it’s more appropriate to transfer your talk to another speaker or release a slot for one of the many waitlisted talks.
We appreciate your understanding! Don’t hesitate to reach out to me (Slack works!) with any questions.
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@team For those of you trying to figure out your situation right now, since we’ve only just got our acceptances, I haven’t had time to draft tickets on figuring out visa stuff and getting your plane tickets purchased.
Since a lot of it is time critical, please just log on Log in - OpenCraft for now until I can get you all individual tickets to hammer on. Preferably, try to figure out how soon you’ll be able to make a call on attendance either way.
I have been involved in many of the projects listed, so I can probably take on one or two-- @tecoholic 's, for instance, was one I was deeply involved in. For anyone else who has a talk and thinks their odds are slim (or that they can’t attend), please mention anyone else you know was deeply involved and could speak on the matter, and we’ll see if they can attend instead.
Ultimately we need to determine fairly quickly if there are any talks we’ll just have to pass on, so Axim isn’t blocking on us. I don’t think we quite expected this level of success, and figured only one or two people would need to pass on their talk to another team member. Our goal should be to get back to Sarina this week.
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Visa status update: I filled out the required forms and applied for the emergency visa. Interestingly, the embassy does recognize one valid circumstance: “an unexpected need to travel to the U.S. for urgent business purposes occurring before the first available visa appointment date.” Axim’s letter was very helpful.
There’s only a positive response; if they never reply, it’s a negative response, but they don’t give a maximum timeframe. I’ve researched that they respond within 2 to 5 business days. This week in Peru there are two holidays, so the deadline would be April 9th. If I don’t receive a response by then, it’s a negative response.
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@gabriel @Fox Thanks. I think that’s best. Let’s transfer the talk.
Even if I were to present the talk, I was about to rope in Fox as a co-presenter as he had extensive experience on the project. So, it’s a no brainer. (even though I would have liked to have a conference presentation under my belt 
)