Tony Albrecht, Senior Engine Programmer at Pandemic Studios, has written an entry at his Seven Degrees of Freedom blog about a concerning change for speakers at the Game Connect: Asia Pacific. This year, speakers have to cover the cost of entry to the conference, as well as pay an upfront submission fee for each paper (which is then later subtracted from the entry fee)...
(Tony) If you want good speakers, provide good benefits. Make people want to donate a considerable amount of their own time in order to present a good session. Yes, it means that you won't get registration fees from those 20 or so speakers, but if so few people are registering that you really need the fees from those people that actually make the show worth attending, then I think you've got greater problems than just financial ones.
It's got Tony a bit worried on the direction of the conference, and he's provided a list of suggestions on how to bring the conference back on track.
(sourced from Kotaku AU)