This is a bit ironic since it is super easy for Americans and Europeans to go anywhere in the world as opposed to African, Asian, or Russian to travel in Europe and the USA. So obviously a lot of the attendees are Americans and Europeans.
@Fox That’s some supposition but Japan is hoping to re-enable its yearly GOTO domestic traveling campaign in April 2022 (still not sure), international students are still waiting to be able to join their university so tourism has a very low chance to be on their planning for the first half of 2022, to be honest.
Crossing my fingers because I also would like to plan to go back to Japan starting the second part of 2022.
I don’t know how the pandemic situation will be in 4 months. The conference is a gathering of hundreds of people from several countries, that have recently traveled and met many random people, and want to meet more. Then there are social activities, eating together and living together. These are many risk vectors. What health guidelines will be followed? How will we and edX react to changes?
In addition I can’t plan the near-term future or where I’ll be or whether I’ll still be working here.
It’s likely I attend but it can change based on what happens until April.
EDIT: I won’t attend for the reasons mentioned above; see later post
I’ll definitely keep you updated. By the sound of what @toxinu is saying, we will probably need to delay our honeymoon after all. Mostly she and I just need to sit down and make a few judgement calls. Based on a conversation we had yesterday, it’s already starting to look like we may just postpone the honeymoon, but I’ll let you know once we’ve finalized any decisions.
I just want to be sure that I didn’t want to sound really negative but was just trying to give reasonable insights. I really hope you will be able to fulfill this beautiful moment in the best conditions.
@Fox Sounds good - thanks! And indeed, I hope the Covid stuff and the conference won’t get too much in the way – that’s a very special time, so in any case it will be good to make sure you can have a nice honeymoon!
Yup, nobody can know – the planning is based on the assumption that the conference actually happens, which could still change. Knowing edX, and the people who moved to tCRIL, they will stay on top of that, and will adjust the decision based on what happens. They had cancelled the original conference in 2020, have just cancelled the partner conference this winter in Boston, and would do it again if it couldn’t be organized in reasonably safe conditions. I think we can also expect the full range of precautions – mask, distancing, prioritizing outside gatherings – and being in Lisbon helps with this. As long as we do our part, ie testing between travels and getting vaccines, the risk won’t be zero, but it should be measured.
@Fox Sorry for your honeymoon :/ But I’m glad you’ll be able to join at the conference! Hopefully you’ll end up with both a nice honeymoon and a nice conference
I don’t have any conflicting plans on these dates but for now I voted No because whether or not I’ll be able to attend is highly dependent on how the COVID situation develops. (More than one person in my close environment belongs to a high-risk group for COVID and this will play a role when assessing risks involved in attending the conference.)
@Ali Yup! This is for all core team members and contractors, developers or not :) As for the costs and requirements, see https://tasks.opencraft.com/browse/BB-5284 – many of the costs are covered by OpenCraft. The talk submission is important, too :)
@antoviaque Wow, that’s incredibly generous! I am in if Portugal has let South Africa off their travel ban list by then. I really hope they do as I would be sad to miss meeting everyone.
Thought I’d send you a quick message in case it affects your planning at all…
Currently, Portugal isn’t accepting flights from South Africa (where @cassie and I are based) . I really hope the situation changes by the time the conference comes around (it would actually need to change sooner than that to give us time for the visa application process).
Anyway, we’ll keep checking for updates and let you know if there’s a change.
@Ali Yup, there are lots of countries currently not allowed – but I’m guessing it’s largely because of the last wave of infections, and that it’s going to be relaxed in the coming months. I would still plan for coming to not rush things at the last minute (and still have talks accepted on time, for example), while delaying what can be until it’s confirmed. It might actually go the other way for some people, who are accepted now, but might not be later…
Hi! I’m not sure if I’m going to make it or not, yet. Depends on my next job. But if things work out the way I want, I’ll try my best to attend the event and/or meet the team in Lisbon.
I’d love to meet the team in person and I really hope I get the chance to
however: I’ve been looking at travel insurance with COVID cover, and at least in Australia, if you buy travel insurance cover for a place that at the time of purchase doesn’t allow you to travel, then the insurance won’t cover any cancellations or rescheduling of flights. Also, some of them require you to buy coverage >21 days before the start of travel in order to enact the COVID coverage.
I won’t attend, based on the pandemic situation alone, but also because I stopped working already this month.
I also wanted to meet everyone in the team. We didn’t have team meetings since years…
Some decisions about flights/vaccinations/cancellations/visas may happen or change in the last minute and we can’t predict them. But it’s useful to keep „yes, going“ as a default option.
. I really hope the situation changes by the time the conference comes around (it would actually need to change sooner than that to give us time for the visa application process).
to this, and for anyone concerned, the list of allowed countries for non-essential travel is here: