It’s also absolutely the case that, as the organizers, we both want to pay our speakers well and make a profit for ourselves. No question there. But we constantly struggle with the balance between making sure we don’t lose money and making sure we don’t shut the door on too many potential attendees due to the price. Jeffrey and I, and most of our speakers too, are the kind of people who really do want to be able to open the doors to everyone. But we also want to avoid going broke doing so.

That’s why we put so much material online for free–because that’s a door that is open to everyone (who’s online), and we can give to the community that way. It’s not the same as meeting people face to face, but it’s something. Many of us probably give away more than we should, from a cold capitalist point of view, but most of us aren’t cold capitalists.

As for speakers making tons of money: not even close. I’ve been a speaker in the web field for many years now, and most of us are lucky to get $1,000 to present at a major conference (though keynotes are usually higher, there aren’t many who keynote). Some of the newer conferences are paying better than that, but still not enough to make anyone rich. We’re most certainly not making tens of thousands of dollars per appearance. Factor in the travel time, and the fact that some conferences don’t even pay for that travel, and the economics of tech speaking become dubious at best.

Most of us speak because we love to interact with people, and because it gets our names and faces out there, and because we really do want to spread the word. It’s also the case that we don’t want to lose money on the prospect, although we sometimes choose to do so, SXSW and the WWW conferenfce series being prime examples.

I guess in short, I really, really sympathize with you. I remember starting out and how expensive conferences were. Sadly, in order to have a conference at all, someone’s going to have to take a pretty huge financial risk, and so they’ll set things up to minimize their chances of losing that money. That’s what we had to do for An Event Apart, and it’s what every conference organizer does.

I’ll make you a deal, though–if I ever DO make tons of money and become so wealthy that I’ll never have to worry about working again, I’ll pay out of pocket for a conference just for students and newly minted designers, with next to no registration fee and all the accoutrements of an expensive conference. Cool?

After reading your response I had to re-think my next blog entry that I posted this morning because when I posted this last night I was just frustrated with the situation of not getting the chance to participate in such a great event.

Thanks for coming to my site and explaining to me the meaning of why things are the way they are and I am greatful for all the material you guys do put online other wise I wouldn’t be where I am today a long with most of the other web developers out there today.

I probably didn’t put as much research and thinking of what the presenters do for everyone and what they get out of it before posting this so hopefully you didn’t take to much offense.

One way you can try to bridge the gap between wanting to be part of the web community but not being able to afford a conference is by organizing a BarCamp in your area. This works better if you’re in a large city, of course, but it can be fun even in a smaller-city setting.

Oh, and if you still have the next entry around, I say you should put it back up. It’s cool if you dig Andy more than me—he’s a designer and I’m not, for starters, and I’ve got no problem with people’s personal preferences.

I live in Ann Arbor MI, and we have a lot of people out here that are very passionate about the web community. We have places like the IT Zone where they have a lot of good presenters for business in Ann Arbor to be a part of, and network at. I haven’t seen a bout that bar camp thing yet or might of when searching over the blogosphere but didn’t look much into it. I will have to ask some of my associates about it and see if there is one around.

I don’t have that other entry and to be honest it wasn’t really accurate. After this whole post I have learned that you never know who could read your blog. I don’t really dig him more then you I just liked the CSS Mastery book a lot. I really don’t even know that much about him except from that book and his blog. To compare him and you was probably not the smartest thing since you two are so different. I was just trying to be different then the norm. I probably should of stated that I am digging his book at the moment.

When posting this I more or less thought of you as somewhat like a movie star and that you would never care or even find what I wrote. Like I said before I don’t think I even have more then 5 people that actually subscribe to my blog.

The fact that you would even respond to my posting and even comment twice shows me that you are not like what I stated about the presenters in my posting about being just out to make a buck. You took the time to actually explain to me something that you believe in and have a passion for. This shows me that you aren’t this god like figure of CSS and web standards, but a guy who just wants to share his knowledge for his passion, a lot like me but just at the forefront of the community.

The fact that I have had the chance to discuss this with you, it has gave me more of a drive to follow of my passion for web standards and development, so thanks and hope to hear from you again in the future!!