UPDATED: Concerning JSConf Beirut
UPDATE February 18th: We have been assured that the individual who caused the breaches of the Code of Conduct has been removed from the event. Although we have limited visibility into the operation, we believe the new organisation team is acting in good faith, and are subsequently lifting our recommendation to not attend the event.
Original message:
JSConf is a federated group of events. No one person or group is responsible all of them. Instead, we are a close-knit collection of groups that run a JSConf locally, where we live. There are nine JSConfs in the US, Europe, South America, Australia and Asia. They all have their own “feel”, but they all share the awesome community spirit that the original JSConf US in 2009 sparked.
The JSConf family of events is an open group: anyone can run a JSConf, if they adhere to the guidelines.
In late 2015 we were approached by JSConf Beirut to be added to the global family. We found a mentor for them and connected them with speakers. They said they would do things by the book. We were excited to bring JSConf to Lebanon.
Since then, it has come to our attention that the organisers are violating their own Code of Conduct, and despite multiple attempts at helping them to address this (that’s what we are here for, everyone makes mistakes, and we can help fix them), they refuse to handle the situations professionally and adequately.
As a result, the JSConf Family of events is withdrawing their support for the Beirut event. In light of the 2016 hiatus of JSConf EU, we recommended people visiting one of the other 6 5 JSConfs around the world that are happening in 2016, included JSConf Beirut. We also suggested this on our Twitter account.
We no longer recommend you attend or speak at JSConf Beirut, or whatever the event is going to be called going forward, as we have asked the organisers to change it as to not mislead attendees and speakers.
We apologise for any inconvenience, but the safety of this community is our prime concern, and after a significant amount of time trying to fix the situation, we don’t see another way out.
We are disappointed that things have turned out this way and we hope we can bring JSConf to Lebanon in the future.
