When to Cancel an Event: Lessons from a Failed Event
thestartupdigest.com
thestartupdigest.com
I understand the temptation of writing a post like this, but it doesn't really have a place on HN.
If I've already bought (probably non-refundable) plane tickets to fly to a conference, and I get an email a week before the conference saying it's canceled, I'm going to be very mad, even if I get my conference admission money back.
The problem is hoping some miracle will happen in the last week and it turning into a disaster like this.
Second of all, I know people who have gone to unconferences and had a blast and learned a lot. An unconference (eg. a barcamp) is a conference where you don't have speakers lined up ahead of time--participants sign up to give talks.
That doesn't mean the talks suck though. Sure, you probably don't have some awesome famous keynoter, and the quality of talks will be a lot more variable, but you can still catch a lot of good talks about a lot of varied subjects.