Change the physical conference into a virtual one, this way it respects the speakers, allow people to mingle and ideas to flourish.
It's no replacement for an in-person conference, but this approach is better than straight up cancelling everything.
It was actually less than eight days out before they knew they were cancelled. It's hard to do something in so little time.
It's Friday and the conference is Tuesday. Half their people, it sounds like, at least, are on the ground in Zambia already.
You'd take a conference a year in the making and shift it online over a weekend from your hotel room in a developing country? No you would not. I don't blame them for not doing that.