Written by David Tebbutt in October 2004

Not long to wait for the big event, Online Information 2004. Have you decided what conference sessions and show floor masterclasses you want to attend? Have you planned which exhibitors you want to nail, and with what questions?

At the time of writing, 225 exhibitors were signed up, 85 conference sessions and 110 showfloor seminars were planned. You'd never get round that lot in three days if you tried. And that assumes you have three days to spare. What if you're only going for one day?

Planning skills of a high order are required. Ideally, you need to get to the conference sessions and masterclasses you want to, visit the exhibitors you need to and still leave plenty of gaps for food, drink, biological functions and chatting to fellow visitors.

There's no point in meeting up with mates and colleagues - you can do that any time. And there's no point in going to sessions which reinforce what you already believe. Listen to people who are going to challenge your assumptions and introduce you to new thinking. Unless you come away stimulated, and with a fresh outlook, the visit will have been a waste of your time and your organisation's money.

Full details of the event are on the web at online-information.co.uk. Trawl through the programme looking for things which are going to touch your life: trust, open access, next generation knowledge management (by all accounts, the last generation wasn't up to much), information discovery and blogs perhaps. Do stick around for the Q&A sessions at the end of each slot. They often deliver far more value in a few minutes than the presentations themselves. This is because the speakers quite often answer from their hearts rather than from their carefully-rehearsed scripts. And remember that others in the audience are bound to share your concerns and interests. The milling around that accompanies conference sessions is a great place for serendipitous (or, indeed, targeted) encounters.

The exhibition floor is another matter. It's usually a madhouse with presenters competing for your attention. It's handy for checking out competing offerings, or just picking up information packs which you can read later at your leisure. Best to plan questions for specific suppliers before you even leave home, otherwise your time will be determined by other people's agendas rather than your own. Of course, the saddest thing you could do would be to go on a trawl for freebies, even if they are for your children.

The other place to look for inspiration is the masterclasses. These are an eclectic mix of information content, information management and careers advice sessions. They run on, or close to, the floor of the main exhibition and give you an opportunity to grab a quick fix on your chosen topic. The sessions are not 'pitches' from exhibitors, they are usually practitioners and independent consultants sharing their insights. The sessions which particularly caught my eye were the future of search (anything with future in it has got to be worth a visit), the impact of weblogs (it's astonishing what a rich source of information they are, providing someone else extracts the value for you), advice on licence negotiation and, finally, several sessions on planning your own future.

A day, or three, at Online Information is a great chance to lift yourself out of your day to day life and get a broader view of what's going on in our industry. With a bit of forethought and planning, you can make your visit pay dividends for both yourself and the organisation you work for.

We look forward to meeting you there.