&gt; <i>Debian is your common topic.</i><p>What is necessary is a topic to narrow the scope down to be few enough people for me to actually have time to talk to most of them.  I can’t (and I feel I shouldn’t be made to) talk to hundreds of people merely to find them.  Also, I could be of more help to people who need help in a field I know something about.<p>&gt; <i>Conferences are about networking and networking is about socialization.</i><p>Why do you assert this, when my point was that it is <i>not so</i>?