It does seem expensive for conferences here both in terms of venue costs and travel costs for international and even interstate visitors and speakers.

Vendor run ones seem large (eg TechEd) as I am sure they offset a lot of the cost (obviously worth it). Perhaps some soul selling corp sponsorship is needed?

Souls have a kind of bitter aftertaste, so don't worry too much, you can probably buy it back cheap.

I am sure that there is enough demand for it here.