[replicatorblog]

This is the model for O'Reilly's FooCamp which was an amazing experience early in my career. I was a nobody, lucky to score an invite, and got to sit next to tech celebs at breakfast and heard/participated conversations that were and still are well above my pay grade. Some were nichey, but even in those cases there were a few people who were REALLY passionate about game design or some emerging programming language. I made contacts that still pay-off today.

All your criticisms are fair, but we're talking about a couple weekends over the course of a year. If you're enthusiastic and ambitious (and can assemble a like group) I can't imagine a better format.