Except hotel rooms. NYC is infamously short on hotel rooms these days, and what few they have are horrifically high-priced.
Why can't they just move these conferences out of the US? Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested at one of these Vegas hacker conventions, in case people have forgotten after all these years. There are many other countries where these conferences could be held, and where all this security BS isn't much of a factor.
there is a shit-ton of hacker cons outside of the US, the most famous one being the CCC (Chaos Computer Club Convention) in Leizpieg/Hamburg, Germany just before new year's eve.
You mention Dmitry Sklyarov but more recently Marcus Hutchins (MalwareTech) has been also arrested by the FBI following its appearance at Blackhat or Defcon
Why can't they just move these conferences out of the US? Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested at one of these Vegas hacker conventions, in case people have forgotten after all these years. There are many other countries where these conferences could be held, and where all this security BS isn't much of a factor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Elcom_Ltd.