If they couldn't attend the conference because of price depreciation, which is what I assume they'll say, then they freerolled the network. By holding the Dash rather than converting to USD, if the price falls then things the network paid for will not be delivered, however it won't impact Alt-36 negatively. If the price appreciates, now they've got profit they can stuff into their pockets. This is a simple way for proposal owners to game our system, and honestly there should be something in place to either force these companies to convert the Dash to USD, or something. I can't claim to have the answer, obviously this isn't a simple problem, but it must be noted, thought about, and hopefully prevented from happening in the future. Companies freerolling us should be unacceptable.
-- To be clear though, this may not be what happened, it's just my assumption based on the information available.