I am curious how much this venue impacts attendance.
South Africa is one of the more challenging places to get to from Asia or North America. And costly.
Worse, There is not a single flight on the planet from North America or Asia to Cape Town, you'd have to fly in to Johannesburg (and there are only 2 flights from the East Coast that even go there).
I'm not suggesting conferences have to pick a venue in North America or Europe for an event, but open source conferences often have more budget-conscious attendees and I imagine picking a venue with many more travel options and less hours in the air would be far more cost effective to reach. :-)
What you said can be applied backwards. How can you expect people from Africa to join events in Asia or North America?
Hosting open source events in places like Nicaragua and South Africa is a great way to introduce more people to the community, that otherwise would be very difficult for them to join.
South Africa is one of the more challenging places to get to from Asia or North America. And costly.
Worse, There is not a single flight on the planet from North America or Asia to Cape Town, you'd have to fly in to Johannesburg (and there are only 2 flights from the East Coast that even go there).
I'm not suggesting conferences have to pick a venue in North America or Europe for an event, but open source conferences often have more budget-conscious attendees and I imagine picking a venue with many more travel options and less hours in the air would be far more cost effective to reach. :-)