I attended Startup Weekend in West Lafayette (we were the first team to actually launch within the weekend) and San Francisco (we were the only team to do a non

I attended Startup Weekend in West Lafayette (we were the first team to actually launch within the weekend) and San Francisco (we were the only team to do a non-profit app), and I can't recommend it enough. The actual startups created were worthless, but fun. And above all, it was an amazing networking opportunity: I lined up work for over six months now on two different (good) startups based on the contacts I made at Startup Weekend. One thing though -- the original organizer who set up the SWs I went to (Andrew Hyde) is no longer the organizer. He's started working for TechStars and has handed the reigns over to a guy named Raymond.