One thing I did with That 401(k) Conference is to have a price for admission. Sure, there have been advisors who scoffed at paying a fee to attend, but I’ve been to too many free 401(k) related events.
When you don’t charge for admission, it gives incentives for those who reserved the spot any reason to cancel at the last minutes. How many times did I sponsor a 401(k) event and half the reservations cancelled?
I believe that you need those who reserve a spot at your conferences should put something down to attend your event, what I call skin in the game. Charging some sort of fee does a job of making sure that someone who has reserved will actually attend.