There's a total cost to the company of sending your friend to the conference. It consists of the conference, flight & hotel costs and your salary costs for that amount of days.
This is simply the company offering to pay your friend for the former but not the latter. It's of course nicer to have everything paid, but it's also a better offer than having to pay for the conference and take days off.
As you will be expected to pay for part of this (through taking days off) this is an offer however and he/she can't/shouldn't be forced to accept it.
P.S. Keep in mind that this structure is the most tax-efficient way to sponser said trip to the conference in most European countries.
Comments
There's a total cost to the company of sending your friend to the conference. It consists of the conference, flight & hotel costs and your salary costs for that amount of days.
This is simply the company offering to pay your friend for the former but not the latter. It's of course nicer to have everything paid, but it's also a better offer than having to pay for the conference and take days off.
As you will be expected to pay for part of this (through taking days off) this is an offer however and he/she can't/shouldn't be forced to accept it.
P.S. Keep in mind that this structure is the most tax-efficient way to sponser said trip to the conference in most European countries.
Right, he could just say no, it's true.
Surely what he could learn from a conference will also be very useful to the startup too.