I've been to a few networking events and, honestly, I feel like a fish on dry land when I'm there. I don't know who to talk to, I don't like the atmosphere, and

I've been to a few networking events and, honestly, I feel like a fish on dry land when I'm there. I don't know who to talk to, I don't like the atmosphere, and I don't do alcohol, so typically I'm bored out of my skull and somewhat annoyed - not the best first impression to make on the others. This is exactly what happened to me the last time I went someplace hoping to "network." The conversations were dominated by callow young guys (only a few years younger than me, but acting like teenagers) either making it clear how much they thought about themselves or making snarky comments about other people's architectures. With regard to the latter, I just stood there thinking, "You could be right, but you obviously don't know enough about the specifics of their technology to make a sound engineering judgment, much less convince anybody else," knowing that if I opened my mouth everyone would think I was an idiot who felt defensive about bad design. Personally, I do drink alcohol, and all I wanted to do was get drunk so I wouldn't feel so miserable standing there feeling out of place. To avoid that I just sat down and read a book on my iPhone until the technical presentation started. Total networking failure! I think I'm stuck relying on former coworkers to be my network, which is just fine with me.