Cat HicksMar 20
I have been invited to but turned down 3 conferences talks already this year because they're told me it's new policy to not cover speaker travel under the assumption that your tech employer will cover it. I own my own small business as a researcher and my wife is an academic teaching professor, so I cannot ask my household to absorb that. I just want to generally observe that we are filtering the voices we're going to be able to hear from, with all this contraction
Show threadAlan Langford ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿงค๐ŸงŠๆ‘

@grimalkina

Edit for clarity: this is a criticism of conference organizers, and most certainly not directed at Cat or her choices.

And yet over the past year I've "attended" three conferences without leaving my desk, featuring several presenters who also did not leave their desks.

I would be turning such invitations down on the basis of carbon emissions alone. Yes I know the in-person experience is superior, but I'm not willing to sacrifice future generations for that.

Mar 20 at 3:53pmWeb
Show threadCat HicksMar 20
@alan I have always prioritized events that have virtual options, but as someone who works from home and intentionally does not commute every day of my life that was the biggest climate impact I could make and by far outweighs the much, much smaller impact of my occasional travel. I am very comfortable with my choices and in fact proud of them, and they had financial consequences for me. Please do not make assumptions about what I prioritize or unfounded accusations about the value of this work
Show threadCat HicksMar 20
@alan please note too that for several years I have asked instead of speaker fees for orgs to make donations to local education groups, and arranged for multiple events to sponsor student attendees, several of whom have gotten jobs at these events. I don't usually like to post much about this but just because you are criticizing the morality of my choices, some useful context.