We've written a fair amount about Vignette Corporation's various travails over the past year. Like many companies in this economy, Vignette is struggling. However, the company's difficulties began long before the current macroeconomic malaise got underway.

Today comes word from the Austin, Texas-based ECM, WCM, and Portal vendor that Vignette Village (the big yearly user conference) has been cancelled this year.

Carlos Carvajal, the company's Senior Director of Product Strategy, says part of the reason is an expected downturn in attendance: " Market trends indicate the attendance at tradeshows and corporate events will decrease in 2009 and travel-related expenses will be heavily scrutinized in 2009. As a result, many customers will have limited travel budgets."

Of course, that's true in general. Travel-budget cutbacks are not specific just to Vignette customers.

Perhaps more tellingly, Carvajal notes that "funds and resources in 2009 that were intended for Village will be repurposed for other key initiatives," such as "market launch activities for exciting new WCM and Social Media releases in 2009." This suggests Vignette is husbanding its resources extremely carefully now, making every dollar count.

On the other hand, these shows are typically money-makers for vendors, so I wonder if the real story is that Vignette couldn't line up enough sponsors from among their partners. More generally, it's not a good sign for customers, since "Village" was the prime event where they could interact with each other and tune into product roadmaps.

The company says, though, that it will continue to host "Vignette Days" for customers and partners.