I applied online and received an email a few days later inviting me to attend their portfolio review night. My initial thought was that I would be speaking to the actual hiring manager(s) and would be interviewed by them, and showing them my portfolio as well as answering questions. WRONG! It was actually just a 'meet and greet' session where you and several other people are given a 1 hour time slot to supposedly talk to current interns and employees from different departments. The whole night was so disorganized and a complete waste of time! You're basically there to try your hardest to network and hope someone important notices you and exchanges contact information from you.
There is no real information session regarding the internship and you're competing with like 20 other people in the room to try and get a one on one conversation with someone important. There is a time limit for how long you can talk to someone and after time's up, you're booted out of your chair and forced to mingle some more until your next 'turn'. You don't even really need to bring your portfolio because the actual decision process isn't until weeks later when/if the big people decide to review your portfolio and contact you. I wasted so much time and energy going down there just to realize that no one was there because they were interested in ME and MY WORK! It's like they just rounded up a group of random people and hand picked a select few based on a whim. No one is there for YOU specifically and no one cares what you have to offer the company!