A few methods include: Real estate conferences (which can be costly), joining paid communities (which can really be costly), the meetups and forums posted in BiggerPockets, local events, and other online softwares that allow you to search for buyers specifically interested in your location and preferences (of which I like freipro.com the best).

Many of the topics below were hot topics for debate by SFR industry leaders at the recent IMN CONFERENCE in Scottsdale Arizona.

That way they can sell you a $10,000 STR course or a $500 one-day conference. 

Do you know of any meetups/conferences?

You may have to confer with your legal expert on the legality of this.  

They are not attending conferences that you commonly see on these forums, they are not running marketing constantly.  

I have seen some people throw conferences to speak at or podcasts to display their knowledge, others I have seen are very successful displaying their work on social media and then there's people like me who jam out 200 phone calls per day and build their network that way. 

ANR and occupancy rates peak during this time.March - Continuing the high season trend, March witnesses an influx of snowbirds, spring breakers, and various conferences and events, making it the best month of the year.April - Maintaining the high season, April sees a slight slowdown as spring breakers decrease.

I just spoke with Steve Lansbury VP of underwriting at Freddie Mac last Thursday at the MFE conference in Vegas and he said that they no longer have issues with STRs as long as it's under 10% of total units and that they would be willing to discuss it on a case by case basis. 

It's a bunch of conference calls with other "students".