Look for local meetups, that's where you can find people who want to engage more broadly. Appropriate spaces may host these, or you may be able to find out about good hangouts from other meetup attendees.
In hackerspaces, I find that software-focused people have different patterns of use than tool focused people. They need to sit down for some focus time, which is hard to distinguish from just browsing from afar. When people use tools, it's clear to see. Speaking from experience with SF/Noisebridge, Oakland/SudoRoom-Omni-commons, Sacramento/Hacker Lab, and visiting some spaces while traveling.
In hackerspaces, I find that software-focused people have different patterns of use than tool focused people. They need to sit down for some focus time, which is hard to distinguish from just browsing from afar. When people use tools, it's clear to see. Speaking from experience with SF/Noisebridge, Oakland/SudoRoom-Omni-commons, Sacramento/Hacker Lab, and visiting some spaces while traveling.