Ask HN: How does an outsider develop industry knowledge and contacts

Lets say you where a motivated person with experience in the software industry but wanted to create a product to sell into the restaurant industry.

What steps would you take to gain the knowledge and contacts required to sell into an industry that was not your domain?

A few things that come to mind are.. 1) Read how-to and dummy books on starting a business in the new industry. 2) Subscribe to industry specific publications 3) Go to local conventions and meetups that have owners and operators from the new industry.

What else would you do to immerse your self into an industry for the sake of eventually selling into it?

I think this is a problem for a lot of entrepreneurial software developers since our work is generally focused on the implementation of technology as opposed to the creation of business process models.