"Yelp wasn't gaining anything by people attending" Yelp doesn't host these events purely out of the goodness of its heart -- these are recruiting events. They

"Yelp wasn't gaining anything by people attending" Yelp doesn't host these events purely out of the goodness of its heart -- these are recruiting events. They also give Yelp employees preferential access to the speakers. If people don't go to events at Yelp, people don't host events at Yelp.