who said anything about politics? even if you ignore the human element entirely, computers have still degenerated.
CeBIT and other computer expositions
Levi Hall
Lincoln Rogers
...
Brayden Reed
Yes... under certain circumstances
If you treat it like your normal "go in an experience" con you will find a gorillion somewhat connected activities and presentations like at any random dry con with maybe better sitting opportunities so you should go to their Forum and check out the extra activities like going to a range, doing BBQ and so on to get to know some people.
In fact, if you see someone doing something interesting just go up to them and hit them up, chances are they will be happy to dump their info on someone interested, just throw yourself out there because you never know who might know who and into what rooms or groups that can get you.
Also plan out what talks if any you want to hear because you won't be able to see them all.
tl;dr: you need to put in some work to get the most out of it.
Josiah Mitchell