What you need to do is to decide with yourself where you want to see yourself in this business.
First are you in this for the long ride, making a living from it, or do you wish to make i living from it?
Second, do you have a purpose of going? Find out before going, are you going for party or business primary? If your biggest reason to go is the parties, mayby it is better to skip one and go to the next, there is a show every month more or less now anyway.
Third, get things clear with your GF, if you are into this fulltime, then sooner or later some of the shows is a must, it will be needed to expand your business to meet new people also to expand current business with someone you sometimes need to sit down with the person and work on some planning, shows are good for that as you can hook up with several people in a short time, and parties are fun at night
Finally, dont let your GF control your work unless she let you control her work