One thing that is non-obvious to a lot of folks, and is the reason I'm not jumping to restart a conference over here:
They cost a _lot_ of money, and it's real easy to bankrupt the person hosting them if you're not careful.
My goal is to help build a sustainable ecosystem that can foster conferences for decades to come, not a few years until the current leads burn out.
I believe Ruby Central plays a crucial role in helping to make this a reality.
The other half of this equation are the people.
You have to have a critical mass of attendees to make a conference a reality, and that means consistently attended meetups and events to prove that mass.
You also need organizers and volunteers capable of leading that large of a group. It's not trivial to head up a 1500+ person conference, and we need to acknowledge that.
For me I believe this starts locally through meetup organizers, and organically grows from there.
Meetup organizers become local conference organizers over time, perhaps eventually even regional ones and expanding from there.
That takes time, and we need to cultivate and invest in those leaders.
@baweaver @noelrap I’ve seen this in action. At lone star there was a handoff but then the person who took over quit after one year.
With keep ruby weird we didn’t have anyone knocking down our door and also were protective of the brand. It’s really hard to give up something personal if you don’t know how well it will be implemented.
I would recommend a one day, single track conf for anyone looking to start.
Brandon Weaver 
Noel Rappin
Richard Schneeman