Allen Nance posted a nice article on Startup Grind the other day. In it he asks this simple question.

There is a lot of startup events and conversations happening around Atlanta, it is exciting to see, but I am wondering: “is it really helping, honestly, is it helping create better entrepreneurs and more awesome businesses?”

The short answer is yes. 

The longer answer is a little more complicated and I have written about it before (the link is worth the trip for the comments). My short take is that there are too many events, or to be a little more specific there is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to attend too many events if they are not disciplined in focusing on creating products, getting customers, and building companies. Attending events is easy. Those other three things are hard.

Since I wrote that first article on the subject back in 2010 I have moved from helping entrepreneurs to running a business. I have taken my own advice. I typically do not attend more than two events per month. I have also taken to following David Cummings advice on work life balance throwing out the word "average." No more then one evening event per week. It forces me to make choices and keeps me focused.