what is the real purpose of internations shanghai? (Shanghai)

Hi everyone,
i got invited by a good friend of mine in belgium a few weeks ago, not sure what i was going into, i signed up. then just by looking around at the members' profile, all i see is rather (though i usually hate to do so, this may sound like a stereotype) very expat profile, not much to do with local life types of people.. also looking at the types of venue that you choose for your meetings,
how come peope living in shanghai choose to meet up at places like Marriot, Park97, tapas restaurants, while the purpose of this organisation is about multicultural exchange and promoting mutual understanding? also, i have a feeling that there is a rather limited participation of local chinese people, born and bred chinese who could maybe give
the expats some local input as to what are the customs of living in china, what would be
your favourite typical (chinese, sichuanese, shanghaiese, cantonese) restaurant..etc
because other wise we might as well take this whole thing to shanghaiexpats.com..!

i'm heading the local chapter of another type of organisation with the similar objective of the promotion multicultural exchange, i am not here to disrupt anything nor to promote another org to the detriment of this one, am even looking for possible synergy between the two,
just simply a bit puzzled with these specific questions as to the raisons d'etre
of the Internations Community in Shanghai, therefore am raising them here. Thanks!
Philippe Tzou