Is public speaking THAT difficult?!

Oh brother....I went to a "professional development" event this morning. What that really means is that I had to sit through 4 hours of several speakers discuss issues and situations that are related to the industry that I work in. I work in IT. I have had some really good experiences in the past with some of these events, but today's was not on my top 10; far from it....Imagine a room full of geeks; Asian geeks, Indian geeks, Anglo geeks, Jewish geeks and this Puerto Rican geek. I learned plenty of interesting information. Don't get me wrong, but 2 out of the 7 speakers were an ABSOLUTE bore!! Oh man...My mind was drifting to lands and galaxies far, far away....Sheesh..I would rather have listened to nails on a chalkboard or crying babies or something else horrific like that. What's worse than taking time (ok, work time) from your life to listen to someone who thinks they are doing a great job capturing the attention of the audience with a subject that the audience knows about and expects to be treated to some aspect of that information that will streamline their business, allow them to correct mistakes and increase their profits and overall knowledge? I mean, I looked over and saw two middle-aged men hunched over in dreamland...What made these two speakers even worse was that the various (3 out of 4) demos they attempted did not even work. "Uh, I tested this on the same type of computer and I don't understand why it would not work now." Murphy's Law? Who cares! You lost the crowd. You did NOT win the crowd and you did NOT win your freedom!! Needless Gladiator reference...They tried to hype it up and the audience was eager with anticipation to see the results and POW, the house of cards gets toppled...I have spoken many times in a public forum (school and work situations) and deep in the back of my mind is that whole aspect of steping out of myself and listening to me speak and making sure I am not a complete nimrod. Most of that is just being prepared and that thought would rarely cross my mind. Public speaking is crucial to one's success in the professional world; I really believe that. Although many studies have proven that some people equate public speaking to dying. Most people would rather soil themselves then stand in front of a group and speak. Oh well, I look forward to developing myself professionally in the near future.....