Dear Conference Organizers
Eliminate Level 0. In other words, cover Travel Expenses for Speakers.
If you’re a conference backed by a large corporation or conferences are your business, you really don’t have an excuse not to. If you’re a community driven event, get some more sponsorship money from sponsors or cut some costs on promotional videos, or raise that ticket by a few euros.
Telling a speaker they’ll get a free pass to the conference is pretty much the same as saying they won’t be escorted in and out of their session.
Telling a speaker they get exposure and/or marketing is nice, it’s true. But there’s only so much exposure one can get.
Dear Speakers
By accepting Level 0, you’re only promoting the practice.
*Level 3: Too demanded. Having to turn down events despite bucketloads of cash being thrown at you. Much like REST, great in theory, hard in practice.