On Cancelling Roost Austin

Posted by The Roost Team on June 5, 2015

In February, we excitedly announced the 4th running of Roost. We picked Austin, Texas as our spot—home to innovative people, tech-forward companies, and some of the best BBQ on earth. We partnered with TXJS to create a unique educational and social experience. And given the response to our instructor blogs, feedback from past attendees, and streamlined curriculum, we just knew it would be our best Roost yet.

But with just over a month left before the event, that thoughtfulness in planning our curriculum hasn’t translated to event attendance in this case. At previous Roosts, we were able to provide high-quality conference training to packed theaters of 150-300 attendees. After much deliberation, we decided we did not want to move ahead when we would not be able to offer the same quality of experience to attendees of Roost Austin. It could be that people didn’t know about our event in time. It could be that we didn’t hit the mark on communicating how valuable Roost is for working developers and their teams, or how it has helped previous attendees, some of whom were returning to experience Roost again.

We’re not giving up on our mission to help people connect with modern web development practices, open source software, and with each other as peers on the Open Web. In the coming weeks, we’ll be refocusing our efforts on hosting a more intimate workshop the day prior to TXJS, as well as continuing our financial support of TXJS and Austin-area JavaScript meetups.

We are profoundly grateful to those who purchased Roost tickets and shared your excitement with us. We deeply regret we aren’t able to deliver the entirety of the experience we wanted to bring you. We will be assessing where we missed and what we can improve, so that we can learn from our experiences in Austin and offer this event again in the Fall. Roost ticket purchasers will receive a full refund and free attendance to the workshop prior to TXJS, as well as a discount to any future Roost event. An email with more information will be coming soon - please email us at roost@bocoup.com with any questions or feedback.

Finally, we want to give a huge thanks to all the people who’ve supported and attended Roost around the country over the past two and a half years. We’re grateful to be part of such a strong community of open web developers, and it’s a great privilege to be able to spend so much of our time working with you.