Conference Booking Paradox

Jason Yanowitz shares insights about the challenges of running large crypto conferences and their market dynamics.

"What's really tough is big conferences you have to plan out years in advance. Our events team wants us to book venues 4-5 years out. We can't do that because crypto is too cyclical, but we still have to book our 2026 venue.

This is really tough for our business because crypto is so cyclical. If you think you're planning a big event but can't host it, you can crush your business. Coindesk almost died in 2019 because of that reason - they had like 10,000+ people in 2018 and then fell to 2,000 people in 2019. That almost wiped out their whole business.

50% of tickets get sold in the 4 weeks leading up to a conference. Imagine the 5th week out, you're basically thinking 50% of your attendees aren't coming. We know they're going to come because we have 6 years of data, but it's stressful. Ultimately though, the conference serves as the cash flow into the podcast, research business, digital and news operations."