n just a few months, the learning opportunity of the year will be upon you. EXHIBITOR2008 — our version of Mark Twain’s cat — is the national educational conference and exhibition for exhibit and event professionals, their annual fill-up-your-brain-with-new-ideas week. After 20 years, it continues to be the industry’s most comprehensive, highest quality professional-education event of the year. Corporations from 29 countries and 50 states send their exhibit- and event-marketing professionals — new hires and event veterans — to Las Vegas each year for a jam-packed week filled with new trends, new ideas, new people, new products, new career contacts, new suppliers, and endless new solutions. My personal bias: I know of no event experience that will accelerate your learning faster or prove to be of more value to your company than EXHIBITOR2008.

What do you want to learn? Whether you need to keep current on the latest strategic insights and tactical procedures in branding, experiential exhibiting, integrated marketing, buzz marketing, guerilla marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, or jaw-dropping ROI, the EXHIBITOR2008 faculty of nearly 100 expert practitioners has the knowledge and skill sets you can’t find anywhere else. With 200 sessions — of which 70 are brand new this year, including five new sessions on Green exhibiting — you can customize your curriculum to fit your information needs. No matter your challenge, your budget, or your number of annual events, our expert sessions, workshops, and field trips deliver on our guarantee: Learn what you came here for or your money back. Period.

New to the job? Beginners can sign up for the best full-day rookies workshop anywhere and learn more in eight hours than from planning a year’s worth of shows. Veterans can jump on our new Advanced Learning Track designed for those with five or more years of experience.

Do you love case study insights? Everyone is invited to sit in on nine new Profiles in Excellence with experts who consistently steal the show at their industry events.

Book wormish? Get a front-row seat at the Authors Executive Series, with six authors, including William Aruda, Leatrice Eiseman, and Jim Gilmore, who will discuss his new book “Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want.”

Do you prefer wide-open spaces? Take your learning off site with five field trips not available anywhere else, including the all-new Trade Show Investigation (TSI) excursion with author Marlys Arnold. Then sign up for Dinner With Strangers (DWS), the coolest networking opportunity around. Put it on your to-do list. You’ll love it.

Only half your learning happens in the classroom. The other half happens when you tap into the expertise of more than 300 suppliers in the exhibit hall, including companies offering everything from lead-management systems to custom exhibits to the latest in promotional items and Green exhibiting options. It’s where you’ll find your long-range strategic partners, the brightest exhibit designers on the planet, and those 24/7 account executives who understand the business from the ground up and can make it all work better for you.

Finally, don’t miss out on what past attendees often say is the best part: the 49 Peer2Peer Roundtables, where you sit around over beer, wine, and snacks and share war stories, discuss challenges, brainstorm solutions, cringe over Plan Bs, and brag about career-building results with people who speak your language and understand what you do — your colleagues.

Sign up now. Come and connect with your species. Take home new solutions, new friends, and breathtaking inspiration — guaranteed.

I’ll see you there, March 9 to 13, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. For even more information, and to register, visit www.Exhibitor2008.com. e