Credit crunch claims Novell conference

Novell's BrainShare conference, which was scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City in March, has been cancelled.

The Linux firm's chief marketing officer, John Dragoon, wrote on Novell's website that the cancellation was the result of potential attendees' hesitancy at confirming their places, due to being "under increasing pressure to reduce travel and other controllable expenses".

According to Dragoon, the information that Novell would traditionally have imparted at BrainShare will now be disseminated through "online classes, virtual conferences and local tours".

This might be the trend for the future. There may not be a direct analogy with the impending death of Macworld, for example, but it's clear that the evolution of the web is making these large-scale events increasingly unnecessary. With the rise of videoconferencing and dozens of blogs per niche subject, there are now many other, cheaper ways for a company to 'educate' its customers.