Comment by Aurornis

It doesn’t say anyone pulled out at the last minute.

I think we’re trying to put on a very big conference and hoping that big sponsors would come through at the last minute to make the numbers work.

They’ve had some problems in the recent years. It even made NPR headlines for cops having to show up. Everyone who hasn’t heard of the conference until now is assuming the sponsors are entirely to blame but the conference was not doing well for a couple years.