I’m interested in attending. Volunteering depends on a lot of personal details but I’d be interested if it works out.
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I’m interested in attending, and potentially volunteering.
A couple of us started some initial discussions in Discord about arranging a get together on the Kent State University campus where I work, but I suspect such an out of the way location in Ohio would be displeasing to many.
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I don’t think I can volunteer in any significant manner, but I have reasons to think, in a more worldwide accessible way, that access to Canada may be easier than to the USA for some.
On the east coast, it would likely mean the airport hubs, so Toronto and Montréal. Toronto is closer by landmass to more of the USA, I believe.
That’s for the east cost, it doesn’t have to be for the first one, but the West Coast (not necessarily California) may or may not be easier for people across the Pacific, as another worldwide outreach possibility to keep in mind.
(Also I’d like to say that I have no idea for Mexico, or other southern north-american areas; people from there or with experience may chime-in for future possibilities.)
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For eastern USA I think it should probably be somewhere along the eastern corridor. I think that would be Roanoke, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston, or their surrounding metro areas. They all share a rail line and also have airports. Canada would probably be Toronto or Montreal. But I think it could be beneficial to start an interest survey that included anonymized low resolution location info before we settle on the north east. I’d rather not guess at where people might be only to find out most of the attendees are on another coast or in another country, or both.
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I’m interested in the general idea of a North America gathering as well as both volunteering my time/labor and sponsoring the event. I can additionally host 2-3 people if this is held in Boston or Vancouver.
access to Canada may be easier than to the USA for some
Absolutely this; visitor visa access to Canada is in general easier to acquire than to the US, and if we’re going to hold international gatherings, they should be maximally accessible given the other constraints.
Some bikeshedding, with love:
Naming this proposed event “NixCon North America” and distinguishing the location in the title privileges the European event (this is intentional per “The European event is the formal, core gathering”); what happens if the North American event becomes dominant? And what if multiple events are held per year? “NixCon North America 2024Q2”? (To be a bit cheeky: it would be more on-brand to call the current event “NixCon 23.09” 
)
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Its about time! I’d be interesting in volunteering.
One thing I’d like to mention is Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) which takes place in March in Pasadena, California each year (next year: March 14-17, 2024) and does offer Co-Located Events like: DevOps Days, MySQL, etc.. So it could be worth considering having NixCon NA be co-located at SCaLE.
Regardless, I just made an announcement for the current SCaLE CFP since a few of us are heading up a new Reproducible and Immutable Software track this coming year’s SCaLE: SCaLE 21x (2024) - CFP for Reproducible and Immutable Software so there should be plenty of events in North America with nix content 
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I could volunteer! I think this would be a great idea. I know there’s a few Nixers in Colorado that would attend
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running something in parallel at scale would be easier, but it means i won’t be able to come, because i’ll be in the NOC deploying nix machines.
@ron , i have found the perfect location. to make it fair on travel.
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I would be interested in helping!
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I guess that this is a joke, but don’t forget North America is more than the USA.
It’s also better to consider “travel difficulty” in time/frequency with some weight on the farther travels. So that will likely favour the major North American travel hubs, and accessible locations nearby. Considering the size of the continent, and desire to make it more international than continental, it makes sense to favour one coast, each time (assuming it would repeat).
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don’t worry i was joking, finding a place everyone likes is sometimes a struggle.
It’s time to Make America Nix Reproducible Again (MANRA)
Where do i get MANRA caps made?
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I’m interested in helping
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Virtual hugs! <3 and thank you for already starting to provide thoughts into the different areas we need to consider!
I’ll send out requests for times after I get back home next week to find us an initial sync slot, setup an open matrix channel, and set up some forms of fully async collaboration mechanisms like a brainstorm doc. Open to more ideas on the meta logistics!
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+1 on Boston DC New York corridor. Purely selfish here - don’t think I’d be able to attend anything further afield, and I really want to go to this.
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I have not researched it too much, what about Calgary/Edmonton area? Calgary has direct flights in/out of Europe/Asia/USA. Hotels aren’t too expensive.
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I think that Cincinnati Ohio would be a great place to host because it’s affordable and there is an international airport!
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DC, NY, or somewhere around there is pretty doable for me. Southern California is easiest for me since if it’s LA, that’s just a couple hours. Hopefully something can be figured out which is easiest for everyone.
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Yeah, this seems sound. Also this year was TU, and in Toronto, is UT, so itd make sense to reverse things on the other side of the ocean.
Its quite safe to visit, has a reasonble legal environ (weed is legal there), and a vibrant art scene. Maybe it is a question of optimizing for visitors from everywhere? Has anyone made a survey yet to gauge interest and help decipher what locations people may be traveling from?
Another one recommended Ohio, which could possibly work. But im not familiar with the local environment in that state.
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I think this is very important. Before we can decide where to locate the conference it would be best to know where the interested parties would be coming from.
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Survey is definitely needed to figure out where that 30%ish percent is mainly around. Let’s aim to make one next week.