I'm not familiar with the event, but these two of the three questions that immediately sprang to my mind as well, with the third being: Who is the audience and how likely is it that their interests are already aligned with your product?
We're in good pitching shape and it's definitely the right market. My thinking is that early stage companies should not be spending big money on conferences and it will all things considered run us 5K. I also think it's straight up disingenuous to have an application process if acceptance still means you have to shell out cash to participate.
The other side of this is spend money to make money.