Grace Hopper Celebration Canceled Due to Low Registration and Financial Struggles

The Grace Hopper Celebration, a conference for women in computing, has been canceled just two weeks before its scheduled start, tomshardware.com reported. AnitaB.org, the nonprofit organization that manages the convention, announced that both individual registrations and sponsorship commitments fell significantly below expectations, leaving the event short of funds needed to cover operating costs.

The cancellation leaves attendees responsible for canceling their own travel and lodging arrangements. Fees already paid depend on the nonprofit securing a clearer picture of its finances, with AnitaB.org stating it will contact registrants about their fees by Oct. 26. Sponsors and exhibitors are being handled through direct contacts, though no information on refunds was available at the time of posting.

Financial Deficits and Declining Attendance

According to annual IRS filings cited by tomshardware.com, AnitaB.org lost $14.6 million in 2024 on revenue of $27.5 million against $42.1 million in expenses. Net assets roughly halved while liabilities nearly doubled during that period. Contributions and grants dropped sharply from $11.2 million in 2023 to just $724,350 in 2024. Attendance also declined from 29,000 in 2023 to 17,000 in 2024, counting both in-person and virtual participants. The 2024 filing put the conference’s own expenses at $26.9 million against $22.4 million in revenue.

Speakers and Program Disruptions

The event was scheduled for Oct. 27 through Oct. 30 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Announced speakers included journalist Kara Swisher, Cloudflare co-founder Michelle Zatlyn, and futurist Sinead Bovell, with Cathy Hackl hosting and GHC co-founder Telle Whitney expected to give a talk. I’m in shock. The notice just came in, Hackl told Forbes, as cited by tomshardware.com. Writer and TheLi.st co-founder Rachel Sklar called the conference a mainstay on X.

Past iterations of the conference featured technical collaborations such as Open Source Day, where projects like Ceph participated in all-day hack-a-thons, ceph.io reported. The current cancellation also disrupts career-fair interviews meant to connect employers with job seekers, prompting AnitaB.org to ask employers to keep those conversations going directly where possible without guarantees.

Future Announcements and Refunds

AnitaB.org is considering strategic alternatives and evaluating future programming following the financial strain. Further announcements regarding the organization and the conference, founded by Anita Borg and Telle Whitney in 1994, are expected in the coming weeks.