At least you took the time to write up your thoughts and some feelings... I just bitch
The most interesting thing I've read in this thread so far was the idea of a round table speed networking... I gave speed networking a try and was first overwhelmed by the noise and 60 seconds of info from people that I couldn't or didn't want to do business with, followed by silly conversations between people I already knew, while waiting for the bell to ring so I could get pitched by someone else who's product I probably didn't need. I wanted to meet people, not get sold. The highlight of my one attempt at speed networking was I was sitting beside Meepers so we talked a bunch in between rotations.