Isn't that the idea behind (academic) conferences? Bringing together everyone in a field to meet new people/network, and also learn from talks and poster sessions is the motivation. There is something I've found fundamentally different in being able to spend time with professors or graduate students "trapped" at a conference poster session than reaching out across time zones via an email->potential phone call. The ability to see tons of different research, ask stupid questions, and bounce ideas off of people in real time without any other distractions means that, to me, they usually are much more productive than I expected them to be.