This may interest you:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/aug/27/warsaw.poland

It’s about the colonisation of an old “no go” area of Warsaw, Poland, with hip young things along lines of providing an antidote to the bland, shiny, corporatist new build that is sucking the soul out of Warsaw’s city centre.

So maybe the article’s got a point. Here in Birmingham, UK, there’s the usual meat-market “vertical drinking sheds” that serve the mainstream nightlife market in the city centre, and which “creative types” shun in favour of smaller, independently-owned bars and clubs on the edge of the centre and further out in suburbs: but isn’t this also about snobbery, as well as being “edgy” and “creative” – or does that matter? There’s been snobbery in nightlife since the concept began, surely?

This reflects the continuing radical lowering of the cost of organization itself, such that many of these events are volunteer-run and free.

Take a look at the places hosting BarCamps:
http://www.barcamp.org/

And, on a more entrepreneurial note, Startup Weekends:
http://startupweekend.com/