> Most of the "proceeds" from a conference come from an abundance of sponsorship for that year. For the community-organised, non-profit conferences I've been in

> Most of the "proceeds" from a conference come from an abundance of sponsorship for that year. For the community-organised, non-profit conferences I've been involved in, the per-attendee cost is often much more than what we charge for tickets. (This also depends on the overall sentiment within the organising team. Personally, I'm for charging as high as reasonably possible and offering scholarships and discounts where needed.) While I'm sympathetic to that, I'll note that the one conference I'm aware of that does do this, on a matter of principle, is also the most generous with scholarships and assistance, and also the most diverse in both speaker lineup and conference attendees. It's not easy, but definitely possible to run a conference this way; the main problem is that very few actually try.