It's best to just keep them at home. I LOVE to show off my snakes and will take every opportunity to take them out, but I only do that when people have said they'd like to see them. I remember there was a party at my house, and I had gone up to my room with a few people to show them my Ball Python, and a girl happened to walk by the door while I had her out. She was a good 5 feet away but she still screamed, and tried to run away. Her "friends" kept pushing her towards Loki and thought it was hilarious, and she actually began to cry. I felt so bad even though I tried to explain to her that she's harmless. And snakes get very, very upset when they can't use their only two options, "fight" or "flight", and can stress to the point where you'll have them become traumatized. This could cause a myriad of problems such as fasting or abnormal behavior.
I will talk forever about snakes (I used to be a server and one time this couple kept asking me questions so I ended up talking to them practically the whole time they were there, luckily it was a slow day and they were the only ones in my section) and I love to educate people, but I would leave the whole "meeting the snakes" to within your own home. That way, you don't induce mass panic. What we know to be "a harmless little Ball Python" is "a man-eating terror" to others.
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