This is not an industry conference. This is a hacker conference, by the community, for the community. Many people involved are students, who really benefit from

This is not an industry conference. This is a hacker conference, by the community, for the community. Many people involved are students, who really benefit from the admission prices being as low as they are, and the cool projects you see around the assembly area are so cool because they are from tinkerers, people with time (which is often mutually exclusive with money), people who do cool stuff. Paying the speakers would increase ticket prices (though not by much), create a "why do they get paid when everybody volunteers" effect that would discourage volunteers, and ultimately likely lower the quality of the conference. They make pretty clear that if travel costs are really an issue, they'll find a solution.