On thePHP.cc blog they share some thoughts about conferences and, more specifically, the way that PHP conferences are handled with respect to speaker compensation.

Attending an IT conference is fun. You get to meet people, listen to interesting presentations, maybe even participate in a workshop where you can expand your skills. Furthermore, there is free food, evening activities including parties, and networking. At the very least, it is a break from doing time in the office.

Each tech community, including PHP, has some well-known speakers that frequently present at conferences around the world. Admittedly, we are among them. How cool must it be to get all this excitement of a conference, and even get paid to do it?

Wait a moment. Nobody said that conference speakers get paid to do their job. And in fact, they are not.

They talk briefly about the history of conferences in the PHP community and how, despite the industry standard being to the contrary, they'll often pay for speaker travel/accommodations. Despite the time taken to prepare a presentation at a PHP conference, (most) speakers do not anticipate being paid for the speaking time itself. The post ends with a discussion about the amount of time they (thePHP.cc) spend around conferences and when they expect that an event would help out speakers with costs involved with the event.

Stefan Koopmanschap has continued his look at conferences and sharing some of his own personal views around them and, mostly, the Call for Papers process. In his new post he focuses on the Speaker Package, a nicety that's often provided by the conference to help the speaker come to and stay at the event.

The speaker package is the term used for the package of reimbursements and other advantages you have as a speaker. This may (or may not) include a free ticket to the conference, travel and/or hotel reimbursements, a speakers dinner and some other things.

When submitting to a conference, it is important to realize what the speaker package consists of. [...] I made the mistake once of making assumptions about the speaker package (in this case: I assumed travel was being reimbursed) when submitting proposals to a conference. I got accepted, but then found out my flight was not covered by the conference. Because of that, I had to cancel that conference.

He makes the recommendation that, if the speaker package seems unclear by the documentation on the site, you ask the organizers for the information instead of assuming. He also shares one of his own personal rules about submitting - not putting in any submissions if the conference doesn't have a speaker reimbursement package. He does this because he sees the time he puts in to prepare and present as valuable and the package is a conference's way of saying that work is appreciated.