I mostly ignore events now, even when invited by friends. Too much self-promotion, too low quality of talks/speakers. It's usually a waste of time. I don't expect to see 500 A-tier founders in the room, but if you're going to bore me with a thinly veiled ad for your product or an obvious attempt at making yourself or the organizers look cool, then fuck you. I'm guessing others are like me: they went to a few events, wasted their time, and decided they'd rather work on their startup or interact with folks on X. I organized meetups and conferences in China for years. It wasn't that different. It takes time to build a reputation for high quality events that attract the right kind of crowd. I intend to do that. I may fail, but I'll try. PS: No "broski" please.