You have to separate business events from community events. I never take offense to not being invited to a business event, even one held in-house, where managem

You have to separate business events from community events. I never take offense to not being invited to a business event, even one held in-house, where management is looking to schmooze with potential investors, partners and clients. Management rehearses what type of interaction they're going to have, with whom, for how long and what the content of the conversation will be (or at least they should be rehearsing), and to be honest, those plans need not be shared with developers nor should developers/sales/support/operations be rubbing elbows in the same room with prospects. It's a business, not an egalitarian democracy. We all know some numbnuts will get drunk and embarrass themselves and the company. It's easier to avoid the potential of that happening by restricting the invite list to only the strategically important people. As a developer, I never considered myself to be such. Also, I never invite my boss to any of my parties, so whatever. As far as the marketing/biz dev/party planner people us concerned, they're a necessary evil who more often than not display asshole behavior of the kind described in the post, but as a developer you should ask yourself if your life is worth working with/for people who's great idea is a car-sharing service with the need for a VIP room.