AWP?

Anyone around here going to AWP in Portland next month? I made a goal last year to apply for a Regional Artist Project grant to go to some sort of conference, and picked, at random, what seemed like the biggest thing I could find in the U.S. It also helped that I noticed other RAP grants had been awarded to attend this conference in the past, so that seemed like a good sign.
Anyhow, to my great surprise, I was given the grant, and now that it's a month out and everything is arranged, the reality is creeping in that I have no clue what I'm doing and have made Poor Life Choices. It seems like the AWP is mostly for MFA types (not me), poetry types (definitely not me), and literary types (please not me). I just want to go to try and meet some agents and maybe some publishers face-to-face in a semi-professional manner. I have a fantasy novel that's almost as done as I and my little small-town writer's group can make it. Meanwhile, there is almost no mention of genre stuff in the conference panels, etc.
I'm sure it'll be a good time. I love being alone in a crowd for a few days, so I'm looking forward to being somewhere new, etc. But the "goal" of this trip just seems SOOOO unlikely. I'm looking forward to a lot of neat panels, never turn down the chance for some edumacation, but, I don't see much of my personal goals in there anywhere if I'm not down for hobnobing at the after parties. I'm panicking and wishing I'd picked something else, but it's just too late now.
So, back to my original question. Any of you folks been to this circus? I've read all sorts of serious and cheeky writes ups about "what to do/not do" sort of thing, but they seem mostly geared to the young MFA people. ("Find a sexy poet and sleep with them!" "Drink with strangers!" "Make business cards in advance!") For several year I went to one of these sorts of massive conference things at the College Media Association's big spring shindig in NYC, but as an advisor. Lots of fun, great for the kiddos, and I picked up all sorts of knowledge on the sidelines. Never tried to "network" because I did.not.give.a.crap. and wasn't there for myself.
Meanwhile, now I'm happily in the frumpy middle aged part of my life, and as a woman, the idea of drinking with strangers in a strange city holds zero appeal. As does running around exploring after dark. (God, I AM old, aren't I? That didn't used to be the case, you know.)
Talk me down, anyone? Or back up, whatever seems better.

Thanks, that's about what I expected. Oh well, guess I'll have to have a nice trip and learn stuff anyhow. Just not what I'd planned.

I know, I highly suspect that particular piece was written by a hopeful poet, lol.

Thanks, this is heartening.

I figured I should post some sort of update to this. I went, I saw, I listened, I tried to avoid the constant smell of weed. There were plenty of business-aspect panels to attend, which I did, and I even went to a couple of the more academic panels that were interesting. One on the cultural and historical legacy of "magical realism" vs. what the publishing industry is using the words for was pretty cool, as was one about black representation in comics and superhero-related poetry. (I'm butchering the actual names and premises here, which were much more loftily phrased.) Very Serious Poets and Literary Types were everywhere, and as I am not a poet and I have a hard time taking anything seriously, that was ... challenging. A panel put on by the Authors Guild on contracts was very informative, and a few panels centered around the agent process were entertaining. In the rarefied atmosphere of all the MFA types, the common thread was often "my professor knew someone and that's how I got my agent." Oddly, no one had a heart attack at any of this elitist bullshit, and even more odd, I kept a smile on my face and acted like that was all fine and normal.
I give it an 8/10 for things to do once and enjoy, but I will never go back again, I think. All future cons shall be genre-related. One of the biggest laughs I got was one where a set of agents were discussing how they make decisions, and the consensus was that they'd all accept a book with beautiful writing even if the plot/structure/whatever else needed "a lot of work," assuming the author didn't appear to be a pain in the ass. These are literary or non-fiction, of course, not genre. ...Does it seem like that's a lower standard than most genre folks would expect of their own stuff??? Now I know why so little seems to happen in so many literary fiction novels.
Ok, that's enough, I need to stop. I don't mean to be quite so catty, please forgive me, but I've been holding in ALL my thoughts about my trip while surrounded by this strange world and it's immensely satisfying to say some of them "out loud."

Hahahah, so... let me tell you how I did very little exploring, and if it wasn't within clear line of sight of the redline or my hotel, I probably didn't go. I DID go to Powell's, and it was fantastic, and I ate at Zeus-something-or-other at the hotel across the street from it, but that first afternoon on the day before the conference started was my one and only attempt to explore on foot. I never saw one freaking doughnut shop of any name, but everyone around me talked of doughnuts when they weren't talking about luminous and transcendent writing. I ate fantastic pizza at Goose Hollow Inn, some excellent shepherd's pie at Kells (Kell's?), a lot of bleh food at the convention center, a couple meals at a diner called Johnny's or something near my maybe-infested-with-hookers* hotel, and a late-night breakfast at an Elmer's, also kinda near my hotel. I ended up regretting the Elmers, which was fine food-wise, but I had to walk in the rain a lot farther than I'd been promised, and as I passed the local dispensary an Extremely Charming Young Man wearing a thing that covered most of his face stepped out of the shadows to follow me for a couple of blocks before I stopped to cross the street. He was probably(?) not following me, but that's how it felt as I was alone on the sidewalk late at night in what suddenly seemed like not the best neighborhood. This was the same night as the event in my footnote. Later, I saw other people wearing the same "cover your face" sort of zippered turtleneck things, so I guess it's a thing people there wear when it's cold and rainy a lot? But, still, it did not inspire confidence.

*3 a.m. one night, I was awoken by an argument between a couple right outside my door yelling something about $300. I knew checking in that it was sketchy as hell, but it was also cheap and available, so ... I walked out unscathed, though, so all's well that ends well.