It clearly passes the market test. For over a decade, people who have busy schedules have found the time and expended requisite resources to come and hobnob. There must be some networking value, at minimum.

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You have a critical mass of people who tend to be powerful in terms of leadership and resources. To the extent that people's opinions coalesce around a set of conclusions, their focus gets directed to certain issues and it may in fact affect thinking and ultimately, in some very decentralized way, actual actions.

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