Its kinda a chicken or egg kind of thing, some people might want to go if they knew they could be on a panel or play a show, regardless of honorarium.

That's a good point. Since there aren't any other responses indicating an interest at the moment, I'll plan on asking specific individuals in the spring if they'd be interested in doing a panel for the following year. This would give several months to potentially save up money for next year's conference. Thanks again for your input!

I would encourage you to seek out and invite people you think would be good speakers, so you can get a diverse and informed panel instead of just whoever happens to be in town that day.

If I was currently working at a university and had institutional funding to provide to panelists, I would love to do something more targeted as I would be able to provide a stipend to help cover costs associated with travel and what not. I agree with the sentiment behind your suggestion and was just curious if there was only going to be one or two people attending or a much larger number. If much larger, I would like to be more strategic with the selection process and submit a proposal; however, I don't plan on submitting if there is a small response rate where I couldn't get a more diverse and informed panel. The current lack of responses leads me to believe there won't be a diverse enough group of people who are already planning on attending and are interested in doing a panel.

I do appreciate your suggestion!

Thanks!
Jared