Three thoughts come to mind: 1. Launching at a big event means taking the risk of getting lost in the noise. 2. Launch when it's ready. 3. Really, when yo

Three thoughts come to mind: 1. Launching at a big event means taking the risk of getting lost in the noise. 2. Launch when it's ready. 3. Really, when you talk about launching at a big event, aren't you really saying, "I want to launch at a time when I can maximize press?" Also, agree with the point on target market. There's no point in launching a consumer web app at a mobile conference. Finally, I might suggest launching at a non-tech conference. Let's say you were going to create a consumer web site for helping people make shopping decisions about a certain type of product. You could launch that at SXSW. Or, you could go to an industry conference for that type of product, and launch it there. I would venture to suggest that you'll more attention at the later (or is it latter?) event.