We want to ditch Facebook (it sucks) but are reliant for events, what can we do?

Facebook. Ok, so the world experienced a new level of social networking, connectivity and communication convenience. But I don't care anymore, I don't care about your status updates exclaiming how cute your dog is this morning, or the little red update icon on my iPhone telling me someone has commented on a comment on a photo that is in an album that I was tagged in 2007. I'm over the dodgy privacy issues, and where Facebook will go with them to pull in the profits they'll soon need to legitimize their enormous valuations. It was addictive, and kinda fun at times, but it's over for me, and I want out. But what now? I am left with 1 important and useful feature Facebook gives me; events. People invite me to events on Facebook, that's how it works. If I deleted my account, that would be an issue. I have chatted to many people over the last few weeks that feel the same. Facebook is getting tiresome and they also want out, but can't leave because of fear of event exclusion (and some others with the convenience of Facebook connect). Facebook is huge, and with the momentum they have will no doubt be around for a long while no matter what happens. So I ask you, Hacker community, what do we do? Do we leave a skeleton account that has no activity or purpose other than event invites, and the use of Facebook connect? Do we build the next, sleeker, cleaner, simpler social network centered around events and REAL relationships that is backwards compatible with Facebook using their API, so that friends using either can send invites or make simple interactions? How do we leave Facebook, without leaving Facebook? Where do we go from here? Exit strategy? Thoughts?