I was at the conference too. I don't share the OPs issues with the guests attending I was expecting a good mix of different kind of people. I was actually suprised that there were quite a few people above the age of 40.

What was disappointing for me was the organization of the conference. Just a few points:

- The two venues were not well choosen. These two places in Brick Lane are great places if you want to entertain yourself but not great if you want to listen to speakers, check out some product and service suppliers and do general networking.

- The sound quality was rather poor I really had lots of issues to understand what speakers said because first the microphones were crap and second there were always people chatting in the back because the stands were in the same room.

- Lots of the speakers were not well prepared I thought. If I would have to pay a lot of money to be able to pitch my new product to an interested audience I would prepare much better.

Going forward I hope that the organizers choose a better location next time and that the quality of speakers improve. All in all it was still great to get an idea of whats coming and meet lots of like minded people.

sent you a pm

Who knows to be honest. Maybe in five years time 1 btc = 1$ . I hope not though 

Yes mining LTC would be a good alternative. I am currently starting looking into that.

Got a wire transfer into my bitstamp accounts within 3 days.

Did you try localbitcoins.com I bought my first coins there and although a bit more expensive I had a good experience.

I guess BTC will be $1000 on the 6th of December.