You’re right, there is certainly a precedent for this in other industries as a promotional, marketing and user support tool, i.e., both Canon and Nikon run occasional free workshops for their higher end gear, so why not music gear manufacturers? Imo, it’s a no brainer, for just a few hundred pounds they get to meet and strengthen their ties with the most committed of their user base face to face, plus take on product development ideas. Tom Peters and Seth Godin would surely agree.