I found this the most interesting part of the recent IdeaLab discussion about changing the Wikimania framework. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Towards_a_New_Wikimania
"*The total spend by WMF for Wikimania 2014 in London and 2015 in Mexico, including all travel, accommodations, scholarships, staff support and direct conference expenses, was ~$1 million USD*"
This is a pity. Small grants to support a con is one thing, but this is too much.
Please let's stop encouraging conferences that do not cover their own costs. A good conference series pays for itself, including its scholarship pool. There are plenty of communities our size or larger with wonderful, regular conferences of hundreds or thousands of people, which break even or turn a small profit.
FUDCons are an interesting case in point. As I understand it, there was a time when RedHat basically sponsored the events, with scholarships for all active contributors and extensive grants. This was ok, but skewed participation. Then the lavish sponsorship stopped. Attendance dropped; community members felt unloved. Then after a time, this passed, and everyone attended again. (Perhaps a core Fedora contributor can describe this more accurately!)
SJ