Over the years I was a regular speaker at Sun User Group, and wrote several book reviews for their magazine. My first real speaking engagement ever was a 2 hour slot introducing Solaris 2.0 to system administrators at a joint SUG / UKUUG meeting at Oxford University. I’m not sure what scared me most: the 200+ people in the room, or the fact that Rob Gingell sat through it all, grinning. This launched my public speaking career (and I still prefer to have at least 2 hours)! I have been back to Oxford University many times since, but nothing quite compares with that first “baptism of fire”.