NeurIPS 2026: handling of multiple venue locations seems bad [D]

There has been a recent post acknowledging that NeurIPS passes for Sydney sold out in minutes. For paper authors (guaranteed 1 pass at their designated location) — we recently received forms to select a preferred venue, but apparently we’re not guaranteed to present there. I thought it’s a good idea to discuss what this means. Does everyone want to go to Sydney? Is it going to be unlikely to get sent there if you’re in, e.g, Europe? I hear it’s the “main” venue. Is that really the appropriate way to go about things — having a “main” location with all the cool stuff and f*cking over a bunch of unlucky people to go to the runoffs? Wouldn’t it be more fair, if multiple locations are necessary, to spread the conference evenly across them? Curious to hear more opinions.