It's the safe thing to do.If you want to pursue and be successful then when you go to the free seminars talk to the other attendees.

I'm going to ask @William 'W.J' Mencarow to put a special sticker on BP attendee's badges so we can find each other!  

The seminars are valuable bonus material for attendees.

These seminars are taught by extremely good salesmen that probably have never done a real estate deal but rely on naïve attendees for their income. 

Attendees can change the sessions they select up until mid-September :) 

It can also be a way for the host agent to get contact information of any attendees that are looking for a house but do not have a buyers agent.  

We do workshops on seller finance and often more than 1/2 the room attendees are practicing attorneys who freely admit they can't keep up with regulatory laws.On the other hand, there are intelligent solutions out there but the people who have them expect to be paid both for the time and money they spent getting qualified and prepared to give you answers and for helping you find the right solutions for your specific needs.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect - presumably just a lot of networking and maybe some discussions on deals and strategies happening amongst the attendees, which of course is exactly what I need to surround myself with as a beginner.

I went to the HOA meeting for my one unit and most all attendees were investors and several of them told me they only  own condos because of how simple they are.   

Attendees are responsible for there own food and drink.