It's that wonderful time of year again - for some of us, #SAPTechEd09 is in the rearview mirror - although never out of sight - and the leaves are turning and the holidays approaching.  Behind the scenes however, plans are underway for building yet another exciting and educational ASUG Annual Conference, conveniently co-located with SAPPHIRE, in warm and sunny Orlando, Florida.  The dates for the conference are May 16 - 19. 

 Your ASUG volunteers and SAP points-of-contact are already busy getting ready for this event.  Why so early?  It takes time to get the community motivated, get abstracts for presentations submitted, and later, cull through the abstracts to try to pick the best of the best.

So this is the first call to arms and I know you probably have a few hurdles to get over in order to submit your presentation abstract.  The biggest one is this:  Most people *hate* public speaking!  

 Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let's look upon public speaking as an opportunity to strengthen our presentations skills, share our knowledge with our peers, and open up new dialogs.    It's not that hard, if you have a topic you feel passionate about!   And the rewards will go far beyond the actual conference itself.  You will become a better speaker for your job, your career, your employer.  Who doesn't want that?  The investment of time and effort that you put into your presentation preparation may also prompt you to investigate or validate further than if you merely writing something.  So by that, you can also increase your own knowledge.  And you will be sharing your knowledge with your peers - and strengthening your network of professional contacts. 

Furthermore...

ASUG generously provides complimentary registration to up to 2 speakers per presentation, if they are identified at the time you submit the abstract.  So that  give you a ticket to one of the most sought-after SAP-related events.  You will probably get to choose from hundreds of other educational sessions, demos, usability studies, and SAPPHIRE presentations.