Since we have discussed doing the coworking week and the conference in two different locations in 2026, this thread is meant to nominate locations for the co-working week, and discuss their respective merits If you would like a location to be considered, just post it in this thread, explaining why. We’ll give it a couple of weeks (so until November 20th), then I’ll post a poll containing all the places mentioned in this thread, and two more weeks to vote & discuss.
As a reminder, the dates for the 2026 coworking week are May 23rd to May 30th.
Also mention if you are also willing to take care of the work to organize the co-working week, at the place you are nominating and/or elsewhere.
I’ll also move the discussions from the conference thread about the coworking location here, below.
Exciting! Happy to help in any planning tasks if you need it. I’ve wanted to go to Vietnam, there are some really beautiful spots, and accommodation would be very reasonable. It is quite the trip from Salt Lake, but other team members may be closer. I’m open to anywhere.
Like @braden I was hoping it wouldn’t be in the US. For personal reasons, this year was going to be difficult for me to attend in any case.
For the co-working location, I agree with @navin that May-June are pretty hot! There are a lot of cooler hill-station areas in India, but they are also very crowded that time of year.
Additionally, I feel India is very far from the conference location, average flight times are likely to be over 20 hrs. The same is true with Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. I think all these places might be better paired with a conference somewhere in Europe.
It looks like this may be a tricky decision. Since most of our team is based in India, does it make sense to narrow our options to countries that are visa-free or offer e-visas for Indian passport holders? This site is useful for that.
We’ll also need to decide whether it’s worth choosing a location close to the conference. That’s hard to gauge until we know how many of our talks are accepted i.e., how many of us will actually be attending the conference.
I’m not sure this helps! Just thinking out loud about how to narrow down our options.
Fair points, everyone Since our team’s scattered across the globe, I think the main thing will be finding a location that makes sense travel-wise for the majority of us. If not many of us end up travelling to the conference, we can look for a more central location instead.
The tricky part is that we won’t know who’s actually going until the talks are accepted. It might make sense to start by looking at general logistics: where everyone’s based, average flight costs across the team, and good weather in May?
I’m also hesitant to travel to the US given the current political situation.
Sounds like a great idea
Throwing out more location ideas: I’ve been to Europe (Denmark, northeastern Spain) in May, and would go again in a heartbeat. It was really beautiful - lovely springtime weather, flowers and wildlife everywhere.
For us in Australia, pretty much anywhere will involve long expensive flights, but I’ve usually found that nice destinations make the long travel worth it. Travelling to Asia is relatively quick though, and avoids jetlag.
Since we won’t know who goes to the conference exactly for some time, it’s probably simplest to pick what everyone would prefer in absolute, ie get a vote on a list of locations. Then each person is able to factor in their preferences based on how close it is to them, or to the conference, and anything else they would like.
Then we can look more closely at the location by order of preference, and see if there is one that works - ie check for blockers with costs, visas, politics, etc. and pick the first one with no blocker?
Since we have all the choices in the world (literally), I would personally try to strike a balance between a location that’s easy to travel to for our Indian and South African colleagues, a location that’s affordable since we need to cover our meals, and one that scores relatively well on freedom indexes. Here’s a shortlist list of countries :
Thailand (personal favorite )
Malaysia
Philippines
Vietnam (doesn’t score very high on freedom indexes, requires applying for a visa, but popular destination!)
… and a few curated European suggestions, although some of us will need to apply for a Schengen visa to enter :
Thailand was mentioned earlier and is visa free for these countries.
Outside of visa considerations, other countries I’ll throw in the ring include Finland, France, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Czechia, South Korea, Canada.
EDIT: including reasons why as requested:
Finland: I’ve never been, but the land of a thousand lakes in spring, sounds lovely.
France: I doubt this will be the choice because this was last year’s location, but I’m always up for visiting France again. And if it worked last time, maybe it would be suitable again. ;)
Denmark: it is relatively expensive there, but it’s also very beautiful. Ribes was one of the most charming villages I’ve ever seen.
Spain: relatively cheap, very beautiful. I’ve visited northwest Spain in the Catalonia region in spring before and would highly recommend for wildlife, forests, and weather.
Italy: never been, but throwing it out there as a good potential central European location in the spring.
Czechia: likewise, lovely place in the spring, fairly central Europe.
South Korea: we’ve had plenty of other Asian locations nominated, so let me add another one. It’s a bit further away, but really excellent and cheap food, might just catch the end of the cherry blossom season(?). The air quality isn’t great in spring though unfortunately with the fine dust that blows across from the mongolian deserts.
Canada: relatively closs to the conference so travel isn’t too bad for those attending the conference too, also lovely in the spring.
Love so many of the ideas! I’d like to add the following to the mix (good location, nice weather in May, all interesting mix of culture and nature, cost sensitive):
Although Peru is a bit far for many, here are some nice places in case Peru wins:
Máncora: Beach (25–30 °C)
Cusco: Machu Picchu, a lot of nature and trekking (5–22 °C)
Oxapampa: Nature and a town with German influence (14 °C - 26 °C)
Huaraz: Mountains and trekking (3 - 23 °C)
Chachapoyas: Nature (10 - 25 °C)
Puno: Lake Titicaca (1 - 18 °C)
Edit: Presidential elections are being held in Peru in April 2026. It’s not something that would prevent travel, but it’s good to know, since politics can always be a factor.
If you would like a location to be considered, just post it in this thread, explaining why. We’ll give it a couple of weeks (so until November 20th), then I’ll post a poll containing all the places mentioned in this thread, and two more weeks to vote & discuss.
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