I attended one meeting of the Manchester 2600 because it was right next to work and I think I stayed for all of 30 mins. The meeting seemed to be full of conspiracy theorists. I made the mistake of saying I worked for the BBC and one guy went off on one about the BBC keeping records of people without television licences like it's some horrendous Big Brother thing.
The main topic of interest was chipping and cloning mobiles. Other than that it was a mind numbing experience of endless conversations about CCTV cameras and opening up BT boxes on the street trying to unlock the secrets of the phone network.
I won't say any more as I don't want to offend any 'powerful' people and find a horses head in my bed in the morning!