I would look at other short term venues as well.

Anyone know how successful this venue is?

We meet monthly in Baton Rouge and its a great venue to connect with other local investors.  

I'm excited by the residential and commercial real estate market of Southern California, and want to begin to explore investing while continuing to focus on my career in hospitality operations & sales/branding & entrepreneurship.I focus on opening and building operations and sales systems for event spaces, specifically venues converted from industrial buildings and independent, site-specific hotels and restaurants looking to create or repair revenue streams from weddings, corporate parties, workshops, and in-house programming.

Just networking with real estate investors from all walks of life in these venues will open your mind to everything available, just like the great folks on BP.

Also in knowing what areas of town to be interested in making deals (school district, crime rates, accessibility to venues etc.).My "tips" would be to gain the experience by doing :) I still remember my first day in construction and being nervous and feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of grabbing tools and working on someone else's dream of a new home.

I am such a newbie that I do not know of other "venues" to buy from

Thanks @Joseph M.Haha it actually was fairly successful all things considered, and my wife and I got to go to lot's of cool venues and drink champagne so it was definitely a good experience.

It's right by the freeway into downtown, next to the lake and one of the nicest beaches around, the district has one of the cities best music venues, and it's a decent working class suburb.

These two Meetups are something I build over years of holding events, promoting, paying for venues, food, drinks, etc...