[ghaff]

There is (for good reason) more focus today on diversity--broadly defined e.g. new speakers--for non-academic conferences these days. However, there were quite a few conferences in the tech sector historically that tended to have a core of "the usual suspects" with others grabbing a smaller number of leftover slots. TBH, I probably benefited from this over the years. (Conferences run by companies follow somewhat different rules but still usually have a stable of Top Rated Speakers who tend to get slots.)