[davemel37]

He does write, "You meet some people, you talk but the effect is close to none."

He is perhaps right from an immediate agenda perspective...but in my experience some of those relationships translate into much greater long term opportunities.

I have a theory that the strongest relationships we have are people we have interacted with in two separate places. (i.e. summer camp and than college.)

Same goes for conferences, some of the strongest relationships were built by two random people meeting up at two different conferences.