Why Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood are Brilliant A-Holes(codingcontext.com)
codingcontext.com
Why Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood are Brilliant A-Holes
http://www.codingcontext.com/post/Why-Joel-Spolskey-and-Jeff-Atwood-are-Brilliant-A-Holes.aspx
http://www.codingcontext.com/post/Why-Joel-Spolskey-and-Jeff-Atwood-are-Brilliant-A-Holes.aspx
Just because these two are putting on conferences does not mean that they didn't create very valuable resources.
I think this author is also wrong about the costs of putting on a conference, but the key is that if the conferences don't offer value, they won't last and they won't get attendance. A conference is a product just like anything else, if the product is bad, people won't pay for it.