>>In a community (i.e. non-paid) event, there would be no such thing as, "you have to ask the speaker's permission, I can't give it to you". Most community events have a portal where speakers post their content. SQL Saturday, for instance, tries to enforce that speakers post their material to the site, either before the conference or immediately afterwards. That way, everyone can access it - even people who couldn't attend the event. (Note: these sites often require registration to the site, but it's free).

If attendees don't cover their costs then somebody else has a commercial motivation to do it for them. TANSTAAFL. SWFox has no such patron, but enough people are prepared to pay $ and cross the country or even the world to attend. For the conference to stay viable, organizers have to maintain benefits of attendance. Nothing special here: my own experience of healthcare informatics associations in multiple nations is that annual conferences hosted for the service of members and promising product neutrality, always had an attendance fee. The free conferences usually had a big pharma patron which then forced questions about how the presenters were selected, iow am I attending a propaganda session or a neutral learning experience. For paying conferences, there was a fee if you want the white paper but didn't attend.