The first conference I ever spoke at was when Hillman Curtis kindly invited me to join him on stage in Seattle at Macromedia (remember them) Web World in 2000. However I had to pay for my own flight and accommodation. There was no mention of being paid at all, and neither did I ask; this was an amazing opportunity which I ceased with both hands. And that one decision did change my life. I met the Flashforward crew and met my future publisher as well as amazing people that I would later become my friends such as Todd Purgason from Juxt Interactive. In short I often think what would have happened if I had said "I'm not coming unless you pay me". At any rate I was some youngish wannabee, so I was never going to be paid anyway.

These days I'm lucky enough to get paid for having the honour of being asked to speak at conferences, but you know what, I still do conferences when they don't have the budget to pay me, because I just see these things as huge opportunities to meet people – you never know where it's going to lead. In now way am I advocating working for free at all. Things that add value should be paid for but it's not simply black and white – look at what else you can get out of it.

And as an additional note can I just say that Carsonified also pay for EVERY hotel expense including hotel mini-bars, and believe me no other conference does that!

Brendan Dawes