Never been to social atheist events. What to expect?

[Angrboda]

Alot of realy good debate and loads upon loads of nice people.

At least that was my expirience.

I'm hoping for that. Although one of the speakers is PZ Myers. Question is, am I going to get the reasonable, intelligent biologist PZ or the crazy, intollerant, fundie feminist PZ?

PZ has seemed pretty casual the times I've met him, once at a regional AA conference, and another time at a talk given by JT Eberhard at a local university. While there's bound to be shop talk, I find it's hard to distinguish one group from another in terms of social events, the emphasis is usually on the social rather than the specific. Though I wore one of my Minnesota Atheists t-shirts one time and I went to get something to eat near the library where I had attended a MN Humanist event, and the girl at the counter confided in me that she had recently attended a "newbie night" and she felt that there was a lot of hostility towards religion expressed. I think that may be characteristic of newbie nights in general, as the skeptic newbie night I attended had that feel as well. I also note a general hostility towards religion in the critical thinking meetup groups locally. However if you're worried about confrontation and such, you can probably relax. If you want to stand out, there's opportunity for that; if you just want to blend in, I doubt you'll have any difficulty. (And if the event you're attending has a lot of speakers and events, you may have to go out of your way to be social. At the regional AA conference that I attended, there was little time for any but the most cursory of social exchanges surrounding events. Granted, I'm shy and so I did little to buck that trend, but all the same.)