Hi,
On 2 Feb 2017, at 15:39, Randal Atkinson
<rja(_dot_)lists(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com> wrote:
On 31Jan2017, at 04:44, Naeem Khademi
<naeem(_dot_)khademi(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com> wrote:
The next IETF in the US after Chicago, would be in July 2018 in SF. I don't
think it's even possible
to buy a flight ticket for that time as of now (most airlines wouldn't do
such pre-sale). So, it's pretty
much possible to relocate that meeting elsewhere with causing no loss to
anyone's already-made plans.
The claim above that "most airlines won’t sell 6 months in advance" is false.
Most airlines, including all or nearly all major full-service international
airlines, start selling tickets
at least 12 months before the departure date for the 1st flight on an
itinerary.
To my knowledge, there are some people who already have purchased tickets to
go to IETF in SFO.
This really ought not be surprising as the lowest-cost fares often sell-out
earliest. A number of
IETF people don’t work for big companies and are traveling on their own
money. Those people
would suffer greatly from a change in location less than 12 months out.
I am aware that some have suggested the IETF do more remote meetings. I
think that is worth
exploring.
I certainly would support IETF making all future meetings more accessible
remotely — and I think
that is a goal the IETF has been making progress on for some years now, using
Jabber, VTC,
and so forth. Expanding the remote access capabilities and coverage for all
future meetings
(to the extent that is practical at a given point in time) only makes sense.
I just tried availability for flights from London to San Francisco for July
2018 IETF.
None of BA, Virgin or United would offer tickets beyond January 2018.
Perhaps it’s different for internal flights within the US?
I guess we simply can’t know how many people would be inconvenienced should
the IETF announce that the July 2018 IETF is relocating to (say) Vancouver. In
practice,
there would be at least some moral obligation to refund those people if there’s
no flexibility
in the tickets.
Certainly being better placed to support remote participation will be
increasingly
important. The IETF has made great strides in recent years with MeetEcho, etc.
But no
doubt more can be done, and now we have an additional very good reason to do so.
Tim