Most of this stuff is noise, but Startup School is a notable exception. I found the combination of great talks and interesting attendees made it a decent use of

Most of this stuff is noise, but Startup School is a notable exception. I found the combination of great talks and interesting attendees made it a decent use of time. Oh, and it's free. :) As for networking, like most of these things your mileage will vary depending on your base networking-quotient * luck (who you happen to talk to). There are definitely worse ways to invest a Saturday.