Material Conference 2016 not taking place

Sadly the promising looking event called Material, that was planned to be held in July by my friends Brian Suda and Joschi Kuphal is not taking place. The reason is that they only funded 1/3 of what they tried to get through their Kickstarter campaign. Their website states:

ATTENTION: This conference will not take place in 2016!
Thanks for your support — we'll be back in 2017 ...

I haven’t seen a post with Brian’s or Joschi’s view on things about why they think it wasn’t reaching the goal they set, but in my opinion reasons could be, that it was set in the wrong time of the year. In Europe July in most countries is holiday season already where people take time off and where flights are more expensive than usually. Also, for an event like this one, being in Iceland, maybe 4 months are not enough to make a decision whether to go or not. It might be the time most people need, like seen in the survey I did, but maybe for a trip like this, being special (in a positive way) in my opinion, it could be different.

Also, as I stated before, Kickstarter is not my favourite choice for backing an event. It works if you already have a huge network to spread the campaign and where you can be sure that it will work out in the end, but otherwise I think it leads more to a “I wait and see how popular this is” mentality than to being quick to get your ticket. People maybe wait and see instead of grabbing a well-priced ticket to reserve their seat. But maybe I am wrong … just my guess and opinion.

I myself have to blame me as well for not backing the event though I was planning to got. Only the time was difficult for me as well, as I have a family who loves to spend time with me (obviously) and where everybody is happy, if I am not attending events in July and August. Therefore I wasn’t sure either and did not back it … shame on me.

I do like the idea Brian and Joschi had and I hope they’ll give it another try in 2017. Let’s help them and spread the word even more next time.