Personally, as someone who has a strong aversion to drinking to excess and has never been to a conference--the fact that I hear so much about drunken partying a

Personally, as someone who has a strong aversion to drinking to excess and has never been to a conference--the fact that I hear so much about drunken partying at these events is the single biggest reason I have never attended one. I keep hearing about fascinating conferences. Then I hear people talk about their experiences at conferences, which sound essentially like stories about partying in college, and think--well, if the main social activity is "partying," then I'll miss most of the social aspects of the conference. So I just watch videos of the talks online instead. (Maybe this is dumb, so I'm open to suggestions that my impressions are incorrect.) The reactions here--which range from "everyone does it" and "there's no solution" (which may well be true!) to "stop being a whiny busybody," are unfairly dismissive. The author didn't say that drinking should be banned. She simply suggested a few alternative activities that didn't involve drinking, many of which can be organized by attendees themselves, and pointed out that a culture of partying may turn off some people, which is certainly true in my case.