I agree with the factual basis of your comment; it's true that lots of conference attendees have their tickets covered by employers. That was true for about 50%

I agree with the factual basis of your comment; it's true that lots of conference attendees have their tickets covered by employers. That was true for about 50% of our attendees, but it was a real mix - and I'm pretty sure that everyone was happy with their investment. However, there's another dimension to this, which is that there are different kinds of conferences and of course, different kinds of attendees. We were very up-front in our marketing that our event was catering to a certain personality profile; specifically, people who understood that the talks were the thing that happened between hallway conversations. This was pretty radical in 2008. The vast majority of conferences have a cookie-cutter vibe, and I agree with you that most solo devs would cut those out of the budget in leaner times. We wanted our event to act as a force multiplier, whether that meant elevating smart ideas or meeting the people you wanted to work with or for. It was carefully designed and high touch.