I want to echo almost everything AnnieHall has said. At its largest, NEST probably would be overwhelming to just about at any first-timer. It was actually my second gathering and I was still overwhelmed. That said, the past two years it's been a bit smaller, and although I was disappointed at first at the thought of a small NEST, I actually enjoyed it much more than the big ones. I found that I was able to meet and spend a fair amount of time talking to just about everybody.
The newbies this year were outstanding, and it seemed like they didn't have any trouble at all fitting in and finding people to talk to. I absolutely LOVE new people, and many gathering vets feel the same and will go out of their way to get to know them. One year a bunch of us even kinda kidnapped a new kid, his name was New Kid, and forced him to come out to eat with us. (If you're reading this, New Kid, you left your NEST envelope in my car. And thanks for the oranges.) We didn't see much of him after we brought him back and released him into the NEST wild, but every time I did catch a glimpse of him he was hanging out and chatting comfortably with other people. I'm positive he had a great time. This year, I got drunk at Rev Jamie's party and spent like 4 hours telling the newbies how awesome they were. Seriously, they were awesome. And only one of them had been to a gathering before. But they found where people were hanging out instead of hiding in their rooms. They came out to eat when they were invited. They DID stuff. If you come and DO stuff, you'll have fun.
If you put even a modicum of effort into getting to know people and you're polite, you should have very little issues making friends at NEST. Contrary to what the people who have never been to NEST ever before say, it's not clique-y. It's not top secret. It's not full of freaks and pervs who are going to poke and grab and touch you. It's just fun.
Lastly, I've been to... I dunno... five NESTs I think? So, if AnnieHall is off taking some new stunning pictures of herself (sidebar: I thought we had an emoticon that said "sexy" and I was going to post that here, but I can't find it. Or it never existed. At any rate... sorry. But you're pictures are bitchin'.) and kered is feeding his birds, feel free to shoot me a PM with any questions 🙂