But the companies/people demonstrating don't have to pay. Dave Winer is behind this and had a swipe at the companies asking for cash to slot in talks. [0]

But he also had another idea. It's called an 'Un-Conference' [1] and goes something like this ... 'The sum of the expertise of the people in the audience is greater than the sum of expertise of the people on stage'. [2] So swap the panel for audience members and maybe even pay people to listen. [3]

As for me most of the time I wait until ITConversations or the numerous other outlets release the talk to audio.

Reference

[0] Dave Winer, 'Tuesday, February 14, 2006, OReilly Sponsor's prospectus'

http://www.scripting.com/2006/02/14.html#When:6:30:11PM

[1] Dave Winer, '5th, March 2006, What is an unconference?'

http://scripting.wordpress.com/2006/03/05/what-is-an-unconference/

[2] Observing that if you swapped parts of the audience in the stage for the panel it would be smarter (but not necessarily better to listen to).

[3] Dave Winer, 'Disintermediate, Commenting on Jeff Jarvis suggestions for audience to be paid to listen.'

http://www.scripting.com/2006/02/15.html#disintermediate