"I know these conferences are also businesses, so they need to make a profit, and events are not cheap to run, having run surf events at scale for the past 4 years - I get it".

Here's the thing though - nobody is pointing a gun at the head of purpose industry event organisers and begging them to dream up these events.

People are deciding to set them up as businesses, and at some point making the choice to either not pay speakers, or to charge speakers (!), as part of their business model.

I had a call this last week with an event organiser who said they can't pay speakers because 'It's year 1', as if this made it OK.

I run a business, and if the only way I could make it work was by taking advantage of unpaid labour, I'd probably be thinking I had a bit of an issue with my business model.

Here’s an idea: if your conference or summit can’t operate in any other way, maybe don’t hold your conference.

Where it becomes especially egregious, as you rightly point out, is when these events are promoted as solving the problem they themselves help to perpetuate.

There's just a fundamental dishonesty at the heart of it all. That's why it's good to challenge it.