Virtual Conference or In Person

I recently attended a session by Steve Dembo frpm Discovery. The topic was "Learning to speak native" http://cliotech.blogspot.com/2008/02/learning-to-speak-native-pete-keynote.html

Steve talked about Marc Prensky - "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants"
people who grew up with the technology are "hard-wired" differently.

Steve talked about non natives talking with an accent. He went on to say that we can lose the accent if we use the technolgy fluently.

Later in the presentation he seem to float the idea that attending a conference virtualy is something that we should be doing more of. I agree but I wonder about the time , setting priorities and the missing piece of interaction with real people.

Secondl Life is a virtual community that is taking hold and gaining momentium. It is a new professional learning community. I am having problems finding the time to get involved. I have an avitator but haven;t learned to become engaged or activated.

How doe people find the time?

Steve talks about the Native way to attend a conference: live blog,s podcasts, backchannels, Skpecasts, Twitter, uStream, Chatcasting, HitchHikr...

I just came back from two different conferences - it was the social aspect of meeting and being with other people and away from my office that engergized me.

It got me thinking about