It's not his duty to do anything, and he's explicitly saying people have accepted speaking slots then not shown up so your doubts are unfounded. Have you never attended a conference where there is a last-minute change in a speaker or talk? Theirs is not the first time I've heard of that happening, either.

Have you never attended a conference where a speaker was not from a developing country but didn't bother to show up anyway? I had

I say charge more, take higher deposits if needed but be more hands on with all speakers (not discriminating against "global south"): get their precise arrival info, always be in touch about their status, meet at the airport, organize their accommodation, etc. So they have no chance to escape your hospitality

A large tech conference may have 100+ speakers. They're not all getting the white glove treatment.

Life does happen in any case--especially in these days when people are acutely aware that they can't show up at conferences with an illness. I've also filled in for a speaker who just totally forgot they had a session at the conference and were double-booked elsewhere. It happens. Might seem odd but it can happen when you might have a a dozen speaking slots a year and many more proposals in flight.

What does whether someone is coming from a developing country or not have to do with anything?

What it has to do with anything? Well, you are replying in a subthread about blanket refusing applicants from eg. India because they "don't show up". Have you mixed up threads or did not read before commenting?

I suggest you take a step back and think about how your comments come across so as not to unintentionally come off more harsh than you want.

In fact what I was replying to was someone saying it was an event organizer's "duty" to write invitation letters for conference attendees for Visa purposes, which it is objectively not. The country is irrelevant, the economic development of the country is irrelevant.

You literally just told me off saying it has nothing to do with anything though it was part of the context, and you tell me I'm harsh. The nature of context is it does not stop existing just because you don't mention it.

I very much agree it's exactly organizer's duty to write visa invitations, and without prejudice and discrimination, and if they want they can do other things to combat abuse as I suggest.

Whereas your idea that "it's not his(sic) job to do anything" is very dubious on many levels and no offense I hope I don't have a misfortune to attend a conf you organize :)

Err international attendees cannot get visas without such invitation letters, so if you want international attendees then you should write such letters. You can't both want international attendance and then not do the legwork to support that.

> If they have paid to register for your conference, it’s your duty to write those letters.

I should probably have made it clear that I'm talking about conferences without registration fees.