As you may have heard on this week’s edition of The Talk Show, John Gruber recently suffered a detached retina. The treatment involved with this condition unfortunately means that John is unable to fly anywhere within the next three months. He’ll be missing next week’s Apple event in San Francisco, and we’re sad to say that he’ll be missing Úll.

When he sent us the news, after sending him our best wishes for a full recovery, we scrambled to come up with a shortlist of names to “replace” John. We soon realised though, that one does not simply replace John Gruber.

The first edition of Úll launched with a lineup that didn’t include John, even though he had agreed to speak weeks in advance. We wanted to hold back a surprise for the audience, a “one more thing”, if you will. John’s absence now presents us with an opportunity to surprise you yet again: we promise we’ll do our best to find something delightful, not to replace John, but as an alternative to his keynote.

Because bad news never comes in ones, we are also sad to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances, Lauren Goode will no longer be able to make it.

Úll is never just about the people on the stage. It’s about all of us, being together, sharing ideas and building strong relationships. That won’t change.

Replacing two speakers with 3 weeks notice isn’t exactly the kind of job that any conference organiser relishes, but we believe in triumph over adversity, and we’re committed to putting on a great show. Stay tuned!

Update Jim Dalrymple has since had to cancel his speaking appearances for this year. We’ve refreshed our speaker lineup, adding Jessie Char and Des Traynor.