SLCC for 2012 Cancelled (Which is Probably Just as Well)

SLCC for 2012 Cancelled 

(Which is Probably Just as Well)

Get a good look at the Second Life Community Convention banner above, because it looks like the last you'll see -- citing unspecified "changes in the terms of the contract offered by Linden Lab this year", past SLCC producer AvaCon has passed on producing another SLCC this year. Given that wording, it sounds like Linden Lab was making some significant demands to AvaCon to guarantee the company's continued participation. I'm personally sad to see SLCC cancelled (and have a lot of warm memories of SLCCs past), but it's hard to be surprised that it won't go on:

With the almost complete erosion of enterprise/large organization participation in Second Life in the last couple years, SLCC lost potential registrations from people who could get their attendance covered by their employers, or at least written off as a business expense. That leaves SL entrepreneurs and hardcore SL fans as potential attendees, but asking them to spend $1500 or more on registration/travel/hotel while we're still amid a recession seems like a non-starter.

But the real problem, I think, is that Linden Lab has lost any real interest in being involved with the user community. Still enormously profitable, the company could easily defray most costs associated with a real world convention with the amount of revenue it makes from SL in a few days. At some point, the company decided there wasn't enough ROI around SLCC, which is probably true from a strict revenue perspective. But it seems to me it would still be a worthwhile investment in the SL brand (which is tarnished) and its hardcore customer base (which is still engaged, if floundering).

Hat tip: Daniel Voyager.