I have to say I thought the whole thing was great too. I do agree with Michael on every point. But I assume the reason for the invite only meals was to keep out people who were just wanting the meal and not so much the networking and also to insure enough food was available.

To me that seems reasonable. But maybe instead of making it a free for all give the sponsors an allotment of tickets to each meal like Michael suggested. The sponsors can distribute them to those serious about making legit contacts. This way you can also know approximately how many people will need to be fed.

With as crouded as the parties were I'm not sure that 3 on the same night was so bad. hehe We were packed into the Krave but it was fun. Maybe a solution for that would be to hold them in a bigger venue. The after hours suite was great, it was comfortably crouded.

Then my only idea separate from that would be to see if someone could sponsor some writing tablets and pens for the after hours parties. Nothing fancy, but I found that many people either ran out of or forgot business cards. I find myself now in a little dilema as I want to contact a few people but do not have there info. I was going to write down this one person's info but then in the croud lost him. We had to go so I didnt see him again. Anyway, just a thought.