Actually, I like that idea. It'd be great to have SUGs (Security User Groups?) and local meetings of those that want to pool resources and such. I would imagine a meeting like this could benefit from an occassional guest speaker as well as members research topics and presenting on them (perhaps in preparation for a SANS cert, newpaper article or some such thing).

One of the issues with the larger conferences is the cost. They are horribly expensive and often beyond most peoples budgets and such. Locally organized meetings might be a way to help those not so wealthy be able to meet peers.

I'm in Toronto if someone is interested in working on this for this area.