Is it possible to set up DConf Asia?

[Joakim]

On Friday, 29 June 2018 at 11:32:13 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> On Friday, June 29, 2018 10:50:52 Joakim via Digitalmars-d 
> wrote:
>> I coincidentally just read this blog post, that summarizes a 
>> lot of my thoughts against conferences and meetups:
>>
>> https://marco.org/2018/01/17/end-of-conference-era
>>
>> Maybe a good first step would be a mostly online DConf geared 
>> towards Asian timezones? I could help out with arranging those 
>> online talks.
>
> That article seems to pre-suppose that the only benefit from 
> conferences is the talks. A _lot_ of good comes from having a 
> bunch of the key developers in the same place for a few days 
> where they can talk in person.

It "pre-supposes" nothing, points like yours are specifically 
addressed:

"But all of that media can’t really replace the socializing, 
networking, and simply fun that happened as part of (or sometimes 
despite) the conference formula."

> Some communities (e.g. the BSD community) even have developer 
> meetings connected to conferences where they specifically put a 
> bunch of developers in a room together to discuss stuff. The 
> talks are valuable, but in some ways, those face-to-face 
> interactions are worth far more than the talks. So, while 
> there's certainly value in finding ways to get more talks 
> online, I think that it would be a huge mistake to try and push 
> for online stuff to replace physical conferences where 
> developers actually interact with each other in person.

I don't, I think it would be a huge improvement. There are very 
few benefits to getting people together in person in our 
hyperconnected age, and while "key developers in the same place" 
may be one of those, that excludes almost everybody else at DConf.

Honestly, getting everybody together in a room and having them 
stare straight ahead at a speaker is a blindingly stupid waste of 
time these days. The only advantage of everybody being together 
in a room is the heightened communication bandwidth, and then you 
all sit next to each other staring straight ahead silently. The 
conference format made sense when pretty much everybody attending 
didn't have high-speed internet and connected video displays 
decades ago, but they make no sense now, as that blog post notes.