I keep being asked whether I can come to this conference or other. Unfortunately, all too often I have to decline. Please rest assured that I am in no way thinking that your conference isn’t worth my time; there are far more good conferences than I am able to go to.
It has much more to do with me trying to keep a time budget for conferences and stick to it. I’m sure that it would be very possible to walk only on conferences from January 1st to the christmas holidays without ever stepping on real ground in the real world. And without that ground you would probably not want me at your conferences in the first place…