>Come on Mike you've got to be kidding here. When you don't know local laws well enough you should'nt try to establish probabilities.

The fact of the matter is that this is the perception that people in the US have of Montreal. I actually went to the "Charter of the French Language" web site and it does appear that there would be few language issues to contend with regarding hosting a conference in Montreal. (As an aside, it also appears that this web site violates some of the laws because its advertisements are not offered in French but the company is based in Quebec.)

At any rate, Microsoft & Advisor/DevConnections would have to at least investigate the language laws and make sure they were in compliance, and unless a compelling business reason can be offered that makes it worth the effort, this is in itself probably rules out Quebec.

Before that can even be considered, a compelling business reason would have to exist to have the conference in Canada to begin with. With the current exchange rates, that would probably be pretty easy to provide though. Even then, I'm not sure a US company would find it worthwhile to deal with customs, work permits, etc. to host a conference in another country that is mainly attended by people coming from the US.


> Are you telling me that it's impossible to have exclusive english classes in Montreal?

No. I never said that. However, there may very well be different rules for an event that draws over 1000 people vs. a small user group meeting.

> If you personally don't want to come to Montreal tell the real reasons.

Other than Eldor Gemst living there, I can't think of a reason not to go. :-) Just kidding Eldor. I've been to Montreal and have spoken at the user group there and would welcome the chance to come back. I don't have anything against Montreal at all, it's a beautiful city. I resent you trying to turn this into something personal though.

> This is sad. But I don't know what justified those actions at that time.

I don't think there was anything that justified them. Just a customs officer that wanted to give us a hard time. We'd been to Canada to teach classes at least a half-dozen times prior to that without any trouble.

> When was this?

It's been quite a while, I think 95.

> NAFTA. Who is this thing good for anyway.

Mexico

> It seems to me that I never got anything from that deal. Do you think that you ever got something from it? If so could you tell me on which circumstances?

I'm not claiming to benefit from NAFTA or to be a supporter or detractor of it. My only reason for mentioning it was that it was supposed to have made doing business across borders easier.

> How can I judge if none of those sessions are given in Montreal.

Well, if you're going to continue to limit yourself to only attending conferences held in Montreal, you can't. Of course if you haven't been to any of the other conferences than you really can't offer any justification for holding them in Montreal either because you don't have any basis for comparison. From what you've stated here, apparently your sole rational for holding a DevCon in Montreal is that you don't want to travel. I'm sure MS and Advisor are giving this the proper weight it deserves.