I won’t be able to make it to Macworld this year for a number of reasons, most notably that the scheduling gods (unrelated to the Norse pantheon, but similar to that of the Greeks) have me booked on a job that week. However, it’s an event that I wholeheartedly believe in. I think the more of these types of conferences there are, the better off we, as a community, are. My absence is not without my desire to be there, that is for sure.
For those who haven’t been involved in the community of Mac Engineers, but who have a compelling narrative to tell, I’d recommend submitting a presentation. As such, the Call for Speakers is now open. If you’ve never spoken at this event, or attended then going as a speaker would be a really great experience. Nothing against the people who go and speak on an annual basis, but I think every community needs infusions of new blood on an annual basis (visions of Keith Richards with a MacBook are dancing through my head right now). I think it is healthy and keeps the heterogenous nature of the community at a maximum. 
I am sure that the people who pick the speakers would love to take some presentations from people they’ve maybe never met and don’t know – and even possibly help develop the proposed sessions into a more flushed out experience for the audience. Maybe you just did a large deployment that you can talk about, or even a small deployment that’s very unique. Maybe you wrote a script or just found a new workflow that requires fewer manual steps to achieve a common goal. To me, the goal is to be excited about something new with regards to technology and communicate both the excitement and the technology in a way that others can understand. I’ve not always been the best at this, as such a skill for most people is a work in progress. But you can’t get to working on it until you actually propose something!
Good luck and please feel free to ask me if you need any help working out the kinks of one of these. I’ve been a speaker a number of times in the past few years and would love to help in any way I can!
And of course, for those who still don’t want to speak at Macworld, I’d still strongly recommend going. I’ve learned so much over my years attending, I can’t imagine not having done so. From the nights at Dave’s to the mornings at some random diner in I’m still not sure what part of San Francisco (or that one time at the diner in Sacramento the next morning). I’ve shared many great times there and look forward to doing so next year. Hopefully you’ll be an old vet by then, if not already!