On: E3 2020 Cancelled

[manigandham]

No it's not. As of now the show is on so they're selling valid tickets. If they do cancel then they'll refund the cost.

[djsumdog → manigandham]

It's very difficult for these events to refund people. Unless they have some big industry sponsors, a lot is based on ticket sales. Deposits on venues are usually made with the profit left over from last year.

E3 is different because the big companies can choose to eat or write off the loss, or give money more starting capital to organizers for next year. For smaller events like say, a dance weekend or puppet festival, a lot of those are labour of love type events that have been built up slowly over the years. Those will be the groups hardest hit.

[TrueGeek → manigandham]

But what about the cost of the booths, the displays, the printed material, the plane tickets, the hotel rooms?

Months of planning and hundreds of thousands of dollars goes into an NAB vendor booth.

[manigandham → TrueGeek]

That’s on the attendees. Random events happen. It’s no different than a sudden earthquake ruining plans. Doesn’t mean the conference is at fault.

[walls → manigandham]

> If they do cancel then they'll refund the cost.

Several major events have 'cancelled' this year by 'postponing' it until next year, giving no refunds. I wouldn't count on that being true.

[frosted-flakes → manigandham]

Plane tickets, too. Can those be refunded?

[athriren → frosted-flakes]

Most US domestic airlines are just providing travel credit with no cancellation or change fees. I had to cancel a month of business travel just now on several airlines and incurred no cost—I just have to use the credit in the next year which in my case is absolutely not an issue.