1. Make your conference cancellation policy clear and transparent
The most important principle first: organizers are more successful with their cancellation management when it is clear to everyone if, when, and under what conditions a cancellation can be made.
Cancellation policies should not get lost in the fine print of your terms and conditions. While they are certainly a part of them and belong there, terms and conditions often lead a quiet existence on a conference website. They are always there, but no one pays them much attention.
Because the cancellation section deserves more attention, bring it to the forefront. Either link to it directly on the conference website’s homepage and/or feature the cancellation policy in a newsletter.
🤔 Don’t hide it in convoluted sentences. You want to minimize the effort involved in handling cancellations, so everyone should immediately understand how the process works. And the clearer it is, the more likely people are to follow it.
2. Cancellations should have a cost
Be careful with free cancellations. Organizers are often left to foot the bill, because there is always someone who has to process the cancelled bookings and needs to be paid for that work.
However, people who cancel their participation usually have valid reasons and rarely make the decision lightly or on a whim. It is therefore important to find a cancellation fee that doesn't immediately deter people from buying a ticket. On the other hand, it shouldn't be so low that it’s negligible.
This becomes easier with deadlines. Those who cancel on time receive a partial refund or a discount for the next event instead. If someone cancels only a week before the conference begins, there is no refund at all.
🦉 Seek legal advice to define deadlines and regulations for your event precisely and in a legally sound manner. For optimal technical handling of all cancellation-related matters, you can rely on Converia.
3. Conference tickets should also have a cost
Sometimes organizers try to make a conference more attractive by charging little or no participation fees. In scientific conferences, this makes a big difference, as academic meetings are usually on the expensive side and can sometimes become exclusive events that one has to be able to afford. It is all the better when funds are available and organizers consciously set ticket prices lower.
However, ticket prices face the same problem as cancellation fees: those who pay almost nothing to attend are more likely to view the conference as a loose option rather than a fixed appointment in their calendar that is set in stone.
✔️✖️ Instead of raising prices, consider which ticket categories you could offer. Different packages give everyone a choice. Each person can select the ticket that suits them best. If they can only buy a ticket for the entire conference, they might cancel their participation if their interest is limited to the program items of a single day.
Some of our clients also mention ticket insurance during registration. Ticket buyers can purchase it themselves if needed. If they cancel, they handle it directly with the insurance company. This means no extra work for you as the conference organizer.
You can either work directly with a specific insurance provider and include a link to their insurance on your conference website, or you can simply inform ticket buyers about the option of ticket insurance during registration. Those who wish to purchase it can choose the offer that suits them. However, ticket insurance should always be optional. As a rule, it only covers drastic cases that make participation impossible.
4. Limited offers protect against cancellations
You can go one step further by offering certain program items only to a limited number of people.
A potential ticket buyer should see how many spots are left right at the time of registration. Therefore, never sell tickets and then draw lots for the spots afterward. It is better for someone to abandon the registration process because their desired workshop is already sold out than to end up empty-handed after buying a ticket and cancel their participation as a result.
Need a quick break from reading? We also have tips on cancellations in video format:
5. What can attendees look forward to?
People who buy their conference ticket early have a long wait until the event starts. This is valuable time that you, as an organizer, can use to regularly build anticipation.
Start a conference newsletter. Every ticket holder will receive occasional updates and learn what they can look forward to at the event. Summarize the benefits of the conference in a list, or pick one point per newsletter to go into more detail. This could be the agenda, a specific session, networking events, or an explanation of how your conference ensures fair conditions for speakers and staff.
💡 If you actively involve the recipients—for example, by letting them help shape the program through surveys—the conference will automatically become more important to them, as it signals that you value them and their ideas.
These updates also help to keep the date top of mind – which can also prevent the occasional cancellation.
6. Create alternatives to cancellation
Always view cancelling conference attendance as the last resort, to be used only when nothing else is an option.
You can easily avoid the hassle of cancellations by having a policy that allows a person to name a substitute attendee. If everyone is aware of this in advance, the process will be smooth for both sides.
🔄️ Organizers who host multiple similar conferences sometimes offer to transfer a person to a different conference. This usually causes less work than a complete cancellation.
If you are hosting a hybrid conference, a person could join digitally if they are unable to attend in person. This also solves the problem at short notice, for example, if someone is battling a cold just before the conference and would prefer to stay away from the event on-site.
7. Being accommodating is okay, but...
People who cancel do not do so because they want to intentionally harm your conference. As an organizer, you have set rules for cancellations in advance and should apply them. However, depending on the case, it is perfectly fine to turn a blind eye once in a while and not charge someone the full ticket price if they cancel half a day after the deadline, apologize, and have a reasonable explanation.
🙄 Every type of leniency has its limits, and that limit is clearly reached when people do not cancel their attendance at all and only ask for a free or discounted cancellation after the fact.
Therefore, always consider the effort on your end and decide what is a reasonable level of leniency for you. Being accommodating if necessary is fine, but it should not be advertised on the conference website.
Important to know: The right of withdrawal common for consumers, which allows buyers to cancel their purchase free of charge within a few weeks, generally does not apply to conference tickets.
8. Special case: Cancelling hotel bookings for the conference
For some conferences, people can book a hotel room at the same time they register. Caution is advised here: If a person cancels their conference attendance later, it does not mean that the hotel booking is automatically cancelled as well. The hotel may even refuse to transfer the booking to a substitute person, and the costs for the room will be incurred despite the cancellation. Everyone should be clear about this at the latest when registering for the conference.
9. How many cancellations you can expect for your conference
Speculation doesn't help much. It's better to ask directly. Why did they decide not to attend? Were personal reasons the trigger? Sometimes organizers offer tickets while they are still planning the session content. Did people cancel because the final program didn't meet their expectations?
❓ Ask the people who didn't cancel. What was good about the conference? What could be improved? This gives you a much clearer picture of what someone wants when they buy a ticket. It helps reduce the number of no-shows. Perhaps the survey will reveal that a less remote location would be a better choice or that you should shorten the conference by a day.
For recurring conferences, take a closer look at the data at the end: What was the average number of cancellations? What were the most common reasons for them?
The more data you collect, the better your cancellation forecasts will become.
Perhaps these tips will help you receive a few fewer cancellations at your next conference. That is certainly our wish for you!
💡 What’s next?
1. Do you work with mixed tax rates for your conference offers? How do you handle reverse charge? We have compiled tips on the correct taxation of conference tickets here.
2. Do you want to make your conferences more digital in the future, but fear a financial disaster? Our article puts your mind at ease – some costs even disappear when going digital.
3. Or would you like to know how to process cancellations faster with software? Start with a free demo from the attendee's perspective.
