It definitely sounds like you were in the wrong part of the room :)
A problem people have mentioned before is actually finding all of the HNers amongst the other drinkers, so you're not alone. Because of this we started looking for an alternative venue but we couldn't find anything suitable in time.
Now that we've got a regular number of people turning up we could could probably book a room somewhere, there's quite a few places that will give you a free booking if you'll have more than x many people turning up. Especially if we did the meetup earlier in the week when pubs are quieter.
The downstairs area of the Fine Line near St Paul's is pretty good, but I'm sure there's plenty of other bars that offer a similar space.
Your wonderful event sponsor Geomium has splurged on their startup anti-budget and bought name tags for the event. Now we can try not to frighten others at the bar.
A problem people have mentioned before is actually finding all of the HNers amongst the other drinkers, so you're not alone. Because of this we started looking for an alternative venue but we couldn't find anything suitable in time.
If you've got any suggestions it'd be great if you could let us know, either here or via the Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/hn-london/browse_thread/threa...
For the event this Thursday we'll put up a sign, which should at least help you find the right area of the bar.