I’ve been hearing for a year about an EAGx potentially being run in Sub-Saharan Africa. Any updates on that? I heard CEA was hesitant on backing an EAGx in Africa until communities were more developed there. If CEA was hesitant, it would be great to hear why and what they would want to see to get behind and EAGx on the continent?
Yes, we have been exploring that with the help of local organisers.
Assuming enough people will attend, I think the case for doing it is relatively clear. Our current events roster doesn’t include many events which EAs in Africa can attend and those that do are often very far away and in countries which are very difficult for Africans to attend because of visa issues.
We have interested organisers and there are many cities which could act as great hosts. The challenges are:
As you note, it’s possible we should support community growth at the local level before running a regional conference.
The places which are more densely populated with EAs (e.g. South Africa) aren’t easily accessible to EAs in other parts of the continent because of visa issues.
EAs in Africa are distributed across the continent and flights are very expensive. It might make more sense to run smaller events (e.g. in Nigeria and in Kenya and in South Africa) than one large event.
I plan to continue exploring this, thanks for asking.
I’ve been hearing for a year about an EAGx potentially being run in Sub-Saharan Africa. Any updates on that? I heard CEA was hesitant on backing an EAGx in Africa until communities were more developed there. If CEA was hesitant, it would be great to hear why and what they would want to see to get behind and EAGx on the continent?
Yes, we have been exploring that with the help of local organisers.
Assuming enough people will attend, I think the case for doing it is relatively clear. Our current events roster doesn’t include many events which EAs in Africa can attend and those that do are often very far away and in countries which are very difficult for Africans to attend because of visa issues.
We have interested organisers and there are many cities which could act as great hosts. The challenges are:
As you note, it’s possible we should support community growth at the local level before running a regional conference.
The places which are more densely populated with EAs (e.g. South Africa) aren’t easily accessible to EAs in other parts of the continent because of visa issues.
EAs in Africa are distributed across the continent and flights are very expensive. It might make more sense to run smaller events (e.g. in Nigeria and in Kenya and in South Africa) than one large event.
I plan to continue exploring this, thanks for asking.