Quote ="JerryChicken"How good are you at small talk and bull ?'"
Increasingly at these awful 'networking' events you see people concentrating intently on their smartphones/ipads in order to escape the banal being spouted around the room. I'm pretty sure 90% are thinking "I have better things to do and this coffee is crap".
Networking is only worthwhile if you know precisely who you want to speak to and having something of substance to discuss, or even better if you know half the delegates in the first place.
£640? A lot of money, but then as my boss never fails to remind us if it leads to just one contract it's paid for itself. That said, there are any number of these businesses trying to flog access to their database of businesses and contacts, it's just a case of ensuring they can deliver something worthwhile.