Some clubs put out great content and have great speakers. 

Top notch...no salesman pitches...good networking and good speaker.

When I attended real estate investor meetings in California 15 years ago, one of the invited speakers said he used the affordability index to predict the top of the market.

I've sat in a meeting room when a couple of hundred investors in a presentation discussing subject to when the speaker asked "has anyone had a loan called or know someone who has. 

Also, @Darren Sager runs a monthly BP meetup in NY that might be of interest to you where a lot of like minded investors get together and there's a speaker from the podcasts.

We are members/coaches/speakers of the REIA group here in DE as well.

Networking starts at 6pm with the main speakers going on around 7pm.

Valuable information, knowledgeable guest speakers, and you may find partners to work with or a mentor to assist you. 

And then just garden variety greed I Suppose the few events I have been too. the case studies the speakers talk about is usually some whopper once in 10 year deal they did.. now its real.. but its not reality.. and I think the beginners feel that they too should get these types of deals and reality sinks in that they cant find them.. its not like being a landlord anyone who can fog a mirror can do that.. note business done correctly in my mind is an advanced strategy when it comes to NPN  ..

I could get some speakers to call in and share their expertise.