[davnicwil]

This is absolutely the case, and I think an important addition is that usually there's only a very small percentage of the audience who are already knowledgable enough about something to benefit from hearing a truly world-class expert talk about it.

Most people go to tech meetups, even very specific or niche ones, hoping simply to pick up a few tips or an introduction to something from somebody who used it in anger. You don't have to be an authority on something to just learn a few lessons from using it and pass them along.