Nice summary of David's discussion on reasons to present. It's definitely a great experience and I tend to agree with these sentiments. I encourage all of you out there to present. A good way to get your feet wet, so to speak is to talk at a Local User Group meeting or a Regional User Group meeting. These venues often have very accepting audiences who are more likely to encourage and support you than anything else. Some of the regionals, such as MWSUG also have mentorship programs to help you prepare and succeed at presenting. I think all of the regional Call for Papers are closed for 2013, but these would be good places to consider presenting in 2014....