I commented in an earlier post about the challenges PASS has in trying to select a 100 or so speakers out of a set of applicants 2-3 times that size. I've run into a couple people since then that have asked for help/ideas on how to make it to the national level. Please note that I don't have any inside track here, these are general observations that may or may not work for PASS or any other national event:

• Have documented experience doing technical speaking and ideally it goes beyond your local user group. Drive to another group to present (to strangers) and show that you're willing to put in some effort. Do a SQLSaturday, a Code Camp, or event a .Net user group meeting. The more the better.
• Be reasonably polished. Remember that most people will rate you well if you talk about any sexy topic (defined in our context as performance tuning, new features, etc), far fewer rate you on your presentation skills unless you really do badly. Find the best speaker you know and ask them to evaluate you.
• Submit at least two and preferably three abstracts. That shows you're interested and gives the people building the agenda more chances to find a way to fit you in.
• If you submitted abstracts and didn't make the cut, look at the final schedule - did you pick a topic that was also submitted by someone with a 'bigger name'? Rewrite your abstracts right now in view of the final schedule so that each would clearly fit in and not duplicate/conflict with anything selected.
• Prove your technical creds by participating in online discussions and writing articles - something deeper than a blog post.
• Make yourself visible to the people that are running the event/selecting the speakers. Comment on something they wrote, volunteer to help at the conference, invite them to speak at your user group. Politics? Absolutely, but of the practical kind. We tend to go with people we know over people we don't. Of course you can do this the wrong way and look self serving - work on your karma.
• Consider sending in a 5 minute video that shows your speaking skills/style

On the other side of the fence at this point the formula for becoming rich and famous is fairly well known which really increases the number of people seeking relatively few slots. If I were building the agenda I'd be looking for:

• A good percentage of repeat speakers that I know did well at my event (and are likely to do so again)
• People that appear to be experts in a given area; I say appear, but let's define it as having published numerous articles/whitepapers on the subject, having written a book on it, or are otherwise known for it
• People with a decent amount of speaking experience - first time speaking at the event is ok, just not the first time speaking
• I'd be throwing out people with less than 3 (and preferably 5) years experience in the field. Yes, some of them with 1 years experience might be smarter than the rest, but thats the exception.
• I'd also exclude anyone that didn't appear to be paying their dues by contributing at least locally to the profession.
• Some new faces each year so that the event doesn't become stale

I think PASS would serve the audience well by publishing some guidelines about how to get on the agenda and how it's set. At the least I think they should limit every speaker to one session, and require repeat speakers to sit out every third year to make room for someone new (someone suggested that this might irritate the top speakers so that they don't want to return - I have to think that would be rare, but if they are that up tight that they don't see the overall value, we don't need them anyway!).