Revised HalfStack 2020 Plan
Update: We’re running HalfStack Online, part creative JS+web celebration, part covid-19 charity fundraiser, on the 22nd of May and then the 21st of August!.
Obviously with everything happening in the world currently with covid-19, HalfStack has been less of a priority for you and for us. After all, what makes HalfStack special is that it’s an incredibly fun day to get together in real life and have a shared experience around the potential and future of JS and the web platform.
We were fairly optimistic just a few weeks ago, but then things got worse and we had to postpone our HalfStack Charlotte and HalfStack Tel Aviv events to later in 2020 and HalfStack Newquay to summer 2021. We still remain optimistic, but we have received a lot of questions which we’ll attempt to answer here, with the understanding that things are still very much unknown at this time.
Current HalfStack 2020 Schedule
- HalfStack New York: 14th of August, 2020
- HalfStack Vienna: 18th of September, 2020
- HalfStack Tel Aviv: 19th of October, 2020 (new date)
- HalfStack London: 20th of November, 2020
- HalfStack Charlotte: 11th of December, 2020 (new date)
- HalfStack Newquay: 2nd of July, 2021 (new date)
These dates are obviously all tentative, and what was once a nicely spread out set of events across the year are now all compressed into a much shorter period of time.
Our plan now is to make a decision on each event approximately 60 days prior to the scheduled date. To reduce our risk we are not making prepayment for venues or other services that are not fully flexible with their dates. This allows us to survive this and hopefully keep our prices low.
We are also encouraging you to wait before booking travel or only book travel if the airline and/or hotel offer flexibility due to covid-19.
Should we need to postpone any of these events further, the 2020 event will turn into the 2021 event, which are currently scheduled roughly as follows:
- HalfStack Phoenix: 15th of January, 2021
- HalfStack Charlotte: April 2021
- HalfStack Amsterdam (new, tentative): April or May 2021
- HalfStack Tel Aviv: May 2021
- HalfStack Newquay: July 2021
- HalfStack New York: August 2021
- HalfStack Vienna: September 2021
- HalfStack London: November 2021
HalfStack Refund Policy
HalfStack has always had a very generous refund policy (30 days in advance, full refund, no questions asked; less than 30 days, transfer the ticket to anyone else). For the remainder of 2020, we will change the refund policy to allow full refunds until 7 days prior to a HalfStack event for any reason.
HalfStack Online
We are still interested in fostering the JS community. HalfStack grew into a conference out of a series of meetups. We know it’s not the same as in-person events. But we want to do something.
We are exploring having one or more events, ranging from a one-day online conference to perhaps something more like a hangout or meetup series online. These events will be free or very low cost ($30 or less), with the option to donate to charities to help with covid-19. More details at HalfStack Online.
CfP on Pause
At the moment, our CfP is open for many of our events, but we’ve paused making decisions on new talks. We don’t want to waste your time offering the opportunity to speak and then learning that we’re going to need to cancel.
We have selected most of our speakers for Newquay, New York, and Vienna, with a few slots remaining open for each. We have not announced our speakers yet for these events as so much is still in flux. We may start to announce the speakers, or we may wait until there are some initial signs of optimism that things are improving.
Honestly it’s a bit challenging some days to stay motivated to put effort into events that may not happen as planned.
Feedback Welcome
As always, if you have any suggestions or questions, please send them our way, either by leaving a comment here or on Twitter or sending us a message.
