I'm was in Munich on Monday and in Jena for the rest of the week coming from the Philadelphia area. In general, people speak English very well. I know a little bit of German and try to speak it as much as possible, but people pick up right away I'm not good at it and they start speaking English. I would imagine you'll have no issues at the HN meetup like someone else said, it's an English speaking community.
If anyone has gone through a recruiter, can you comment here on your experience with them? Was it a cold call (you or them) or did you already know that particular recruiter?