system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Who owns conferences?

I just started my PhD, and thus, was just exposed to the world of conferences. I'm surprised by how expensive they are. It seems like a very good business with excessive profit, which means that it is a good business opportunity, better come in before the market is saturated. So who owns the conferences? I'm just curious, who are the business savvy individual who spotted this opportunity and seize it?

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Given that I'm new, it seems to me that this is how the conference business work: correct me if I'm wrong. People don't come to a conference out of their own pocket, so they don't care about price. The organization pays. The organizations have very deep pocket, so they are less sensitive to price. More importantly, they cannot afford not sending people to conferences, the loss they will get is even greater. Since the demand is high, and has big pocket, while the supply is currently limited, the price are not cost driven, but demand driven. Am I right?
gpt
The funding body typically owns the conference (this may be the same as the organizer, or it may not). When considering the price of attendance, you have to factor in costs like lease of venue (even if the conference is happening at a university, the university will usually charge a fee for using its space), catering, audiovisual and administrative support, as well as payments to speakers (academic conferences rarely pay presenters, but in industry this is quite common). In the end, $300-$500 per person in the developed world just covers these costs.