@Jay Hinrichs , I was at a local meetup and heard an attendee talk about how he puts a clause in his contracts "Pending partner approval" and was laughing about how his partner was his cat.

Part of the meeting welcomed attendees to share their 2016 REI goals.

Having allowed them to pitch it to me at great length (I was one of their "nightmare" attendees), I concluded that it was not suitable for me at the current time.Now, take aim in my direction.

I'm considering it for this coming 2017 year and curious to hear feedback from previous attendees. 

The Charlotte REIA is mostly beginners and every imaginable vendor is there too.It's not like Metrolina, as Linda is trying to make money off attendees, 

I'm going to leave this in both threads since you asked this question twice (in the future, try to avoid double-posting).I wouldn't say it's a matter of cleaning up an act so much as attendees managing expectations.

I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder so I made the decision to go about it my own way.I reached out to a few of the attendees afterwards, finding more people on Facebook + Linkedin and asked for intro calls.

Don't be shy, I know a number of the attendees and we're all friendly and happy to meet new folks.

Ultimately there were 100 attendees not counting the vendors.

At KW...our big year conference as about 15,000 attendees....so plenty of people to talk to.