We're still around, and there are still regular events multiple times a year. Google some of the big events from the early 2000s, and you may be surprised at how many LAN events are still alive and doing well.

// Our next event is July, and I have a stack of Ciscos in bullpen ready to fly for me and a couple hundred of my closest friends.

You'll be doing them more of a favor if you don't go anywhere near an IDE. If you teach them without the IDE, they will learn what's really going on; once they come into contact with an IDE, they'll figure out where the buttons are soon enough, and be on their way. If you teach them with the IDE, then they'll be totally lost the day they have to code without one. They'll take a lot more away from the class by learning what the devil's really going on, than if it's masked behind the IDE. It's very analogous to systems administration. Put a unix admin on a windows box, and they'll figure it out pretty quick. Try to put a windows admin on a unix box, and they're totally lost.