I think the main reasons I don’t speak at conferences more often (though I do plan to speak at a couple this year) boil down to:

– Cost. Whether it’s covered by me personally or my company, hotel and travel expenses are not insignificant.

– Lack of interest in the topics I most want to talk about. I could go on for hours about Dreamweaver extensibility, but most conference organizers find such a topic to have a too-limited audience.

– Lack of incentive. This is somewhat related to the last point. I love what I do and can talk about it enthusiastically with other conference attendees when I do get to conferences, but honestly, there’s not much benefit to me personally in getting in front of a large group and giving a presentation. It adds stress to my life that I don’t need, and I take any negative feedback to heart (and it haunts me for YEARS). Why take the time to find a topic that conference organizers/attendees would get excited about when it just means more work, stress, and time away from doing what I really love?

– Lack of confidence. I always assume that because I’m not Eric Meyers (or Drew McLellan, for that matter), I have no business talking about CSS. I forget that though I know less about it than many gurus, I know more about it than probably 75% of attendees (at some conferences, anyway).

All that said, the reason I probably will be speaking at a couple conferences this year is that (a) it will help my team to get someone out there in the community, (b) none of the male engineers want to speak (!), and © a colleague is doing a lot of the legwork for me. (I’ll still have to write and give the presentations, obviously, but she’s finding the conferences and making the pitches for me, which is something I wouldn’t bother to do on my own.)