My work lands me in a number of different conferences in non-software industries. This is true for all industries. Its just that ours has a faster revolving door. That, in addition to a low barrier to entry (anyone can claim they're a web developer), leads to a higher degree of this madness. Its just part of human behavior to seek out, and parrot, social signals that let others know you, too, are an insider.

Personally, I have to avoid a great number of those gatherings, since the lot of them are just a circlejerk of low-density information. If I pay too much attention to those events, I catch myself looking down my nose, and since that isn't productive/healthy behavior, I avoid landing myself in a place where guys with buddy-holly glasses and <obscure-craft-beer> argue which Wordpress plugin is the best.