It was paid for by my employer (a national charity) - there's a sliding scale of fees depending on 'ability to pay' - charities get places for buttons, big business pays most, others are somewhere inbetween.
It was a series of one day events looking at aspects of life in my local city (Coventry) and how the various people on the course could interact to improve things - education, health, local government, industry (small and large), social welfare, local press, culture etc etc.
It was a wonderful chance to work with new people (often ones who you'd never otherwise meet) to take some small steps to influence the life of the city for the better - yes we made some useful 'networking' contacts for possible future use, but the whole thing was an exercise in Civic Pride and altruistic effort - not some mad 'plot to take over'.