Well, expect to find the non-clown engineers to be found enjoying beer and pizza with friends rather than random meetups. That is engineer networking. That is how devs find their next job. No one should expect to find them at the equivalent of a an AA meeting for Idea Guys, which is how these networking events tend to go.

Well before the VC pitch, the real epiphanies and ideas get written on the back of a bar napkin. This has been the case for generations of engineers, just like the wearing of beards, not just wave of the startup gold-rush.

I run a small (20-30 people) dev meetup that is fairly technically focused. While we don't have beer, we do have free pizza. I managed to leverage a bunch of my local contacts to negotiate corporate sponsorships. I let them get their name out there and announce job openings. In trade, they pay for pizza, pop, and desserts. It works great for everyone.

I like the ones with free champagne and oysters.