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Imo the socializing can be demoralizing or exciting, driven by sheer luck since there are so many different people in attendance. As a commenter on the article

Imo the socializing can be demoralizing or exciting, driven by sheer luck since there are so many different people in attendance. As a commenter on the article says, "it's difficult to find like-minded people" there. I just decided to roll the dice a LOT of times, and came out with a few serendipitous contacts that will probably be sustained for years to come. But I do think that you need to go in with the mindset of having to converse with many people with whom you don't have anything in common with, before bumping into someone who you find interesting.

drumdance 12y ago
Furthermore, I've found that networking is a very long game. If you go in thinking "what can I get out of this today?" you are only seeing a small part of the benefit. My biggest financial success came from a person I met 7 years before we ever worked together. We only loosely kept in touch over the years, but when the right opportunity came along for both of us we were glad to have met all those years before. I have dozens of people like that in my orbit. Smart, ambitious, connected etc. We just haven't found the right opportunity yet.