Accidental Researcher I work in software engineering, where I specialize in computer graphics.  I recently had to do a bit of research for my job, and I'd like to publish it at some point.  It's currently going through my company's patent application process, but eventually, I think they'll let me publish it.

I don't have a graduate degree, nor do I have any interest in playing the academic game.  On the other hand, my research is novel enough that I expect I'll be getting invitations to conferences when I do publish, and I'd like to know what to expect.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
What you should expect, unfortunately, is a lot less attention and recognition than you expect.  Most journal papers don't result in invitations to speak at conferences, and most conference talks are given to fairly small audiences.
If and when you do speak, you'll probably get a lot of questions along the lines of:


"I'm sure you aren't getting as good a result as you think you are."
"Isn't this really the same idea that Dr. Neverheardofem published in 1995?"
"I've completely misunderstood what you said and would like to argue with you about it."
"This is a neat idea, but isn't it much less important than the things that I care about?"


Try not to take it too hard: this is just the inevitable process by which ideas get challenged, and the better that you are able to respond reasonably and constructively, the better your idea will actually be received.