I like the fact that they are paying for speakers. A lot of conferences of different industries pay the speakers travel, accommodations and food.

You don't have to pay for a 5 star accommodations or first class air travel.

I am all for local speakers but sometimes to cover a topic, your local community might not have a good speaker for that. You might have to go outside local.

Depending on where you get the speaker from, it could cost them $500-$1000+

Andrea & Ron Rennick who came from eastern Canada to Toronto for WordCamp Toronto to speak (was my favourite session by the way), I am sure it wasn't cheap for them to drive/plane/bus/train to Toronto.

What about Lorelle VanFossen? What about....others who speak often.