Yay, the trolls are here!
Who would pay 500 bucks to hear a bunch of lying schmucks patting each other on the back?
It's $270 currently, not $500. Speakers are well-known Bitcoin experts, researchers and entrepreneurs.
You've actually got Tamar Zandberg the leftist, socialist, feminist Knesset member attending as well as Dr. Edward Aufnbenher of Bank of Israel. These are the very people that drove Israel to it's knees and you've invited them, they don't belong in the conference, all the invited members are psuedointellectuals at best trying to cannibalize the movement.
You may not like their opinions, but being in positions of power they are able to affect the course of Bitcoin, it is important to educate them and to hear what they have to say.
How safe it travel in and around Tel Aviv these days? I planned a trip there in 2012 and had to cancel because a bomb exploded on a public bus in downtown Tel Aviv, causing several injuries and long-range rockets launched from Gaza reached as far north as Tel Aviv and southern Jerusalem. Israel has been on my bucket list for a long time and this would give me an excuse to go. Well this and Baha’i Gardens in Haifa, the mountain fortress of Masada etc.
It's safe. Before your post I barely remembered there's such a thing as terrorist attacks. I don't think there were any attacks in Tel Aviv after the one you mentioned.