What a Meetup can do for you?

I have been too, 2 meetups and I have to say for a room full of introvert strangers who just want to code, we didn't do much talking. I made a concerted effort to float around the room and ask "whatcha doo'en" but you might find in england that leads to a sweat inducing hard stare. It's not really a social experience in my eyes. So the thing is I don't have so many friends and had hoped that this sort of event would help me make some, nieve I know, well anyway what does a meet-up do for you, because it didn't do much for me.