Ever had problems with getting the funding to go to the conferences you love to attend? Did you know that many of us get to make our way to these conferences with no conference fee and even a free hotel?

Ahhh, how do they do that, you ask?

Well, there's a little work involved with it. But, the work is fun, and you get access to the speaker lounge with much better internet access than the rest of the conference. VMworld, for example, is one conference that allows anyone in the general public to submit an abstract. If they approve your abstract, then you're on the hook for one 60 minute presentation at the conference. The presentations can be a lot of work, but they're definitely less work than trying to get more funding out of an already shrunken IT training budget.

If you've got the speaking abilities and the VMware knowledge to share with your peers, consider submitting an abstract for the next VMworld. This year, VMworld is in San Francisco from September 11th through 13th.

Click on the link on the upper-right of the screen at this address for more info. You'll need to have any abstracts in by April 27th: http://www.vmware.com/vmworld/