Originally Posted by blacknight

I was at BarCamp in Cork and I also try to get to as many other events around the country as I can.

Apart from anything else I love what I do and I probably have more friends within the industry than I do outside it.

If you are able to make it to anything I'd try for an IIA event. Most of them are fairly relaxed (see my blog for photos of this year's Net Visionaries to give you an example).

The people you meet at events will vary a lot. In some cases they are hardcore techies and industry "heads" that go to everything, while in other cases they are merely curious about this entire "web thing" and want to find out more.

In either case they are usually there to chat and make new friends / acquaintances / enemies, so you'll be in the "same boat" as everyone else