I hope he was, but I'm not certain he was. In any case, I can assure everyone out there who doesn't vacation in the Hamptons that a jump from $99 to $499 is an absolutely huge difference, both practically and psychologically.

I'm not sure how he couldn't have predicted this outcome.

  And as numerous people above pointed out, ...

Including me ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2968214 ).

I was referring to him calling the price hike a "modest" increase. I read it as him being intentionally inappropriately flippant about the thing that killed the conference (in a mildly humourous and self-effacing manor).