SpiceWorld London Canceled
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https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1926545-our-plans-in-europe-spiceworld-london-update
SpiceHeads,
This is a busy time for you and everyone here at Spiceworks. As we wind down another year, we get to celebrate all that worked well over the last 12 months and challenge ourselves to do even better next year.
For those of you who attended SpiceWorld Austin, you no doubt sensed we’re really excited about what’s ahead. There were over 2,400 attendees, 75 sessions, an epic party, and a Cubs World Series win! We had the opportunity to share our product strategy and vision, and the feedback you all had for us was incredibly helpful and inspiring. Lots to do, and we can’t wait to see you again at next year’s event!
SpiceWorld always gives us a great chance to reconnect, and since they’ve joined the team, Laura L (Spiceworks) and John W (Spiceworks) in our London office have met with a number of SpiceHeads across Europe to understand what we can do better and how we can bring the unique Spiceworks experience to more people across the region. So, as plans around SpiceWorld London 2017 began in earnest, we took a step back and reflected on all the feedback we had gathered.
The truth is we can do more in Europe to connect with you more often and to bring the Spiceworks experience to more IT pros. Spiceworks employees and the tech vendors love spending time with SpiceHeads, and it’s up to us to bring everyone together in ways that help you do your jobs. So, what are we going to do?
First, you’re going to see more of us. Spiceworks execs and members of the product teams will be visiting Europe on a regular basis to share our plans, hear your thoughts, and have a beer or two…or more! Members of the team, including Jay (Spiceworks) and Tabrez (Spiceworks), are planning multiple visits across Europe throughout 2017, starting with Munich and London in January.
Second, we’re going to build on the European SpiceCorps program so SpiceCorps leaders and members have the support they need to grow their groups and bring more of their peers and tech brands together. Our SpiceCorps program in Europe has a great foundation that already connects some of Spiceworks most passionate IT pros on a local level. In 2017, we want to help SpiceCorps flourish in ways that eventually connects IT pros in every country and town. Stay tuned for more details on both fronts!
As we looked at SpiceWorld London more specifically, a significant piece of feedback kept coming up over and over again. Simply put, access to London is a major issue for SpiceHeads who live outside the city and especially for those who live outside the UK. The cost of travel and lodging is also a challenge and one that’s been difficult for us to address. And finally, try as we might, we haven’t been able to engage as many IT pros across Europe as we’d like at the event. So unfortunately, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the event next year.
With that said, we also promised you Spiceworks will be in London on May 23-24, and we know many of you were looking forward to getting together with each other and our team. So we’re going to keep that promise. The team is actively working through what that gathering will look like.
To those who’ve already registered for the event, we’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and we’ll be happy to work with you individually to address any concerns. Refunds will be provided so be on the lookout for more information via email later today.
It’s worth noting this change does not affect SpiceWorld Austin in any way.
We fully understand you’d love more specifics and we have a ton of ideas. However, it’s 1) important to us to be forthcoming and share the news when it’s available and 2) ensure we’re taking your feedback and input into account as we work through our approach. We crafted this very short survey and we’d love it if you took a second to provide your thoughts. Additionally, we’ll be reaching out to SpiceHeads to have follow-on conversations based on your survey feedback and comments here.
Our goals in Europe remain the same - provide you with the tools, connections, and information you need while making IT easy and enjoyable for IT pros everywhere. While change can be difficult, we’re excited and committed to creating new ways to connect with more of you and chart a distinct European approach for Spiceworks. Thank you again for all your support and we hope to meet all of you at some point during the new year.
Thanks,
Sanjay
VP of Marketing -
I wonder how this will affect Vendors not just Spiceheads....
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Yeah at 6 months, I'm sure many had rooms and flight setup..
The vendors might demand a lower rate on SW Austin to help cover losses.
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@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
Yeah at 6 months, I'm sure many had rooms and flight setup..
The vendors might demand a lower rate on SW Austin to help cover losses.
I didn't even think about that. Not many would have invested yet, but someone might have. London is NOT a "travel to" event like Austin. It's nearly 90% come on the tube from somewhere else in London. It doesn't even draw many from around the UK.
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A friend of mine was coming for a week in May and Spiceworld was part of the visit...A lot of us do plan months in advance including flights.
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@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
Yeah at 6 months, I'm sure many had rooms and flight setup..
The vendors might demand a lower rate on SW Austin to help cover losses.
I would imagine canceling traveling plans 6 months in advance should not be an issue.
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@scottalanmiller said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
Yeah at 6 months, I'm sure many had rooms and flight setup..
The vendors might demand a lower rate on SW Austin to help cover losses.
I didn't even think about that. Not many would have invested yet, but someone might have. London is NOT a "travel to" event like Austin. It's nearly 90% come on the tube from somewhere else in London. It doesn't even draw many from around the UK.
Well then it didn't serve Europe very well at all did it? It only served London. I suppose if most of SW's traffic comes from London then that's fine.
All the whining in that thread that they won't be able to go to some other city in UK let alone somewhere in EU - damn...
Flights around Europe were cheap when I was looking, but again, if there is no audience outside of London.. then I guess it really doesn't matter. -
@Breffni-Potter said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
A friend of mine was coming for a week in May and Spiceworld was part of the visit...A lot of us do plan months in advance including flights.
Edited - removed
Like you, I try to setup my flights 3+ months out, international 6+ months out.
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@IRJ said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
Yeah at 6 months, I'm sure many had rooms and flight setup..
The vendors might demand a lower rate on SW Austin to help cover losses.
I would imagine canceling traveling plans 6 months in advance should not be an issue.
They are when it come to airfare for private individuals. My normal tickets are non refundable. period. IF they are feeling generous, they will charge me a fee and let me change dates. The cost of non refundable tickets are typically 40% or more. I don't travel enough to have to worry about changing things in the 11th hour the expense hasn't been worth it for me.
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@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@IRJ said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
Yeah at 6 months, I'm sure many had rooms and flight setup..
The vendors might demand a lower rate on SW Austin to help cover losses.
I would imagine canceling traveling plans 6 months in advance should not be an issue.
They are when it come to airfare for private individuals. My normal tickets are non refundable. period. IF they are feeling generous, they will charge me a fee and let me change dates. The cost of non refundable tickets are typically 40% or more. I don't travel enough to have to worry about changing things in the 11th hour the expense hasn't been worth it for me.
Why would you buy non-refundable tickets 6 months in advance? That doesn't make sense to me. The only time I buy non-refundable is if I need to buy tickets a few weeks in advance.
There are too many circumstances that you cannot forsee or control.
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@IRJ said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@IRJ said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
Yeah at 6 months, I'm sure many had rooms and flight setup..
The vendors might demand a lower rate on SW Austin to help cover losses.
I would imagine canceling traveling plans 6 months in advance should not be an issue.
They are when it come to airfare for private individuals. My normal tickets are non refundable. period. IF they are feeling generous, they will charge me a fee and let me change dates. The cost of non refundable tickets are typically 40% or more. I don't travel enough to have to worry about changing things in the 11th hour the expense hasn't been worth it for me.
Why would you buy non-refundable tickets 6 months in advance? That doesn't make sense to me. The only time I buy non-refundable is if I need to buy tickets a few weeks in advance.
There are too many circumstances that you cannot forsee or control.
Did you miss the part where they cost 40%+ more than non-refundable ones? If I would have done that for my last international tickets they would have gone from $1800/ea to over $2600/ea. They did offer trip insurance - which would return my money on the tickets in case of job loss, illness or I think family illness/emergency (very narrow scope) for around $200+ a ticket - yeah I could have purchased that I guess.
But for domestic flights, if I really think there is a possibility that I won't be going, then I'll just buy tickets that much closer to the travel time, paying roughly the same amount anyhow.
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@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@IRJ said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@IRJ said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
Yeah at 6 months, I'm sure many had rooms and flight setup..
The vendors might demand a lower rate on SW Austin to help cover losses.
I would imagine canceling traveling plans 6 months in advance should not be an issue.
They are when it come to airfare for private individuals. My normal tickets are non refundable. period. IF they are feeling generous, they will charge me a fee and let me change dates. The cost of non refundable tickets are typically 40% or more. I don't travel enough to have to worry about changing things in the 11th hour the expense hasn't been worth it for me.
Why would you buy non-refundable tickets 6 months in advance? That doesn't make sense to me. The only time I buy non-refundable is if I need to buy tickets a few weeks in advance.
There are too many circumstances that you cannot forsee or control.
Did you miss the part where they cost 40%+ more than non-refundable ones? If I would have done that for my last international tickets they would have gone from $1800/ea to over $2600/ea. They did offer trip insurance - which would return my money on the tickets in case of job loss, illness or I think family illness/emergency (very narrow scope) for around $200+ a ticket - yeah I could have purchased that I guess.
But for domestic flights, if I really think there is a possibility that I won't be going, then I'll just buy tickets that much closer to the travel time, paying roughly the same amount anyhow.
I am not familiar with international flying, but domestic flights are usually best purchased a month or so in advance or even less.
Too many unknowns can happen in 6 months. However if the cost is 40% more and you saved money a few times before then you are ahead of the game. Which is usually the way it works with insurance anyway.
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@IRJ said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
But for domestic flights, if I really think there is a possibility that I won't be going, then I'll just buy tickets that much closer to the travel time, paying roughly the same amount anyhow.
I am not familiar with international flying, but domestic flights are usually best purchased a month or so in advance or even less.
Too many unknowns can happen in 6 months. However if the cost is 40% more and you saved money a few times before then you are ahead of the game. Which is usually the way it works with insurance anyway.
Now sure where you're flying out of, but I'm guessing you're right for flights out of major metros that have several flights a day to the same place you want to go. Coming out of smaller airports like Omaha - much more restricted. My friends flying from Miami to SF pay the same or less than I do flying from Omaha to SF.
To get the best prices, I need to purchase domestic flights at least 90 days out, 120 is better. I suppose if you're a super deal hunter and take the effort to watch sites daily, you might be able to book closer and still find deals, but I find that effort not worth it.
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Flight prices are just crazy for me.
I purchased tickets in Nov 2015 for June 2016, Omaha to Heathrow and back, $1800/ea. I just booked those same tickets for June 2017, $870/ea.
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I think this is just another sign that SW as a whole is ailing. Time will tell, but I would guess their market penetration won't improve, and will likely diminish, especially in Europe.
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@pchiodo said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
I think this is just another sign that SW as a whole is ailing. Time will tell, but I would guess their market penetration won't improve, and will likely diminish, especially in Europe.
I am not sure about that. I think they have a European market. As many mentioned on here, well before this announcement, that London is a tough city to hold that type of event. Just because they made that decision doesn't necessarily mean they are in trouble. Companies find that certain things aren't as profitable as they like all the time. It's about adjusting and concentrating that energy somewhere else.
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@IRJ said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@IRJ said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
@Dashrender said in SpiceWorld London Canceled:
Yeah at 6 months, I'm sure many had rooms and flight setup..
The vendors might demand a lower rate on SW Austin to help cover losses.
I would imagine canceling traveling plans 6 months in advance should not be an issue.
They are when it come to airfare for private individuals. My normal tickets are non refundable. period. IF they are feeling generous, they will charge me a fee and let me change dates. The cost of non refundable tickets are typically 40% or more. I don't travel enough to have to worry about changing things in the 11th hour the expense hasn't been worth it for me.
Why would you buy non-refundable tickets 6 months in advance? That doesn't make sense to me. The only time I buy non-refundable is if I need to buy tickets a few weeks in advance.
There are too many circumstances that you cannot forsee or control.
When you fly all of the time, you rarely pay for refundable because that adds up quickly.
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@katie had her tickets already. I'm sure a number of people did.
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Latest update just posted (hours after it was written thanks to the Level 3 outage that Level 3 claims never happened.)
Apologies for this post not coming sooner but we had a Level3 outage which meant that when I was ready to post I couldn’t.
First, let me thank everyone for the feedback, we’re listening. Second, we’re humbled by your words, your concerns and your passion for Spiceworks. I, and much of our team, have read and re-read your posts over the last 24 hours. There’s no doubt we could have communicated and handled this better and I’d like to take some small steps in addressing that. We’ve had some fumbles and have made some bad decisions before and we’ll get through this one as we have in the past – by listening, having a discussion and coming up with a better solution. I’ll start by giving you some more insight as to why we’ve done what we’ve done and what we’re going to do next. Here are the things we’ve heard in multiple posts:
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You all believe there’s more to the decision than what we’ve articulated, and that London isn’t a problem from a cost standpoint.
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You wonder why we had to cancel ’17 vs doing it and then doing something new in ’18.
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Several of you have pointed to issues with SpiceCorps.
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You wanted to see more of the plan of what we’re going to do vs. the vacuum of information.
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And most importantly, you really value getting together with your peers, the vendors and the SpiceWorld team.
Let me start with a mea culpa – I should have articulated more of what I’m about to tell you earlier, some of these things, particularly #1 and #2 you just don’t typically share in a public forum, but we’re not typical and I should have been more transparent with all of you. I’m sorry.
Is the real reason financial? Finances of SpiceWorld London certainly don’t help. In short, we break-even on the Austin event but the London event costs twice as much to produce as we bring in for revenue. Each year as the event scaled, the problem got worse. So, we have an event that doesn’t attract a pan-European audience and it costs us money that we could invest in our product and in engaging the community in other ways. If we want a vibrant, scalable, and sustainable pan-European community, we need to find cost-effective ways to do so.
Why not do ’17 and then change? SpiceWorld London takes about half the Spiceworks marketing team to put on and it takes them several months of dedicated effort. Of course, once the London event is done they’re on to Austin. Last year we tried – and failed – to simultaneously execute the event, and to think about its evolution. We have to give the team the space and time to think about a new European-specific model and try out some new things that are engaging, scalable, and sustainable.
I hear the issues on SpiceCorps, and maybe they’re not the answer. We recognize that the current model isn’t working as well as it could in Europe, and as I said in the original post our intention is to evolve the European model to make it better for all of you. We know there’s interest in engaging locally, but clearly have more work to do to crack that model.
Why didn’t we have a more baked plan? The reality is that we didn’t want to come up with a plan in a vacuum; frankly, we need you involved in helping us to craft where we take Spiceworks in Europe.
So what are we actually doing next?
Now – Please continue to post your ideas on how we can evolve this, we’re taking all of this information in even though we’re not responding to each post.
11/24 - Laura and John Webb (EMEA GM) are meeting with 10 or so community members to listen to feedback on what we’re doing well and not well.
12/15 - We’ll announce plans for what we’ll do on May 23rd and 24th.
Finally, I hope that what I’ve shared gives you additional insight about why we are doing what we’re doing. We stand by the commitment we made in the original post to invest in Spiceworks across Europe and it starts with sharing more with you this year, not just about how we engage, but about all our investments that directly impact all of you.
We all want the same thing -- a vibrant global Spiceworks community and know that as we move forward, right or wrong, our decisions are rooted in the desire to create a place for all of you that is around for years to come.
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Another person that booked ahead...
