Conferences are often viewed as an excuse to skive out of the office for a few days in a sunny location, but in truth there's not much point doing that: all your regular work will still be there when you get back. In a busy working life, how can you make sure the information you gather at a conference will get used?
Security expert and conference veteran Chris Joscelyne offered this useful tip at the ITSM Conference on the Gold Coast earlier this week: schedule time in your calendar to revisit conference materials and notes the week after you've been there. For maximum impact, Joscelyne advises a double-review process: "Make an appointment with yourself one month after you attend a conference and spend two hours reviewing how it was relevant to you."

I spotted a blog writeup over at Wired about a scheduling app called Sched.org which was designed to give attendees of the conference a simple to use online tool for planning their time at the conference.

"The Sched.org website displays the entire conference calendar, covering the interactive, film and music events plus parties and unofficial galleries, on a dynamic, easily customizable web page. The site has proven itself to be a godsend to overwhelmed attendees trying to figure out where to go, when to get there, what the most popular events are and who you'll see once you arrive."

Underwire describes Sched.org as the hit of SXSW, and I have to admit the web interface looks great.
Sched.org was tailored for SXSW but I hope and assume that the developers will be looking at opening up this tool for use by other conferences. Even better, open source it. :)

SXSW: This year's Twitter? A simple scheduling app that brings order to the masses [Underwire - Wired]

Earlier this week we pointed you to an interview with security guru Bruce Schneier, who has previously advised Lifehacker readers on how to pick secure passwords. Turns out he'll be visiting our shores as a keynote speaker at Linux.conf.au in January.

LCA is probably Australia's largest open source technical conference. I spoke with conference organiser Donna Benjamin this week and she told me they've closed early bird registrations and the conference is on track to selling out, with 2/3 of the tickets already sold.
The other keynote speakers are Stormy Peters, Director of Community and Partner Programs at Open Logic and Anthony Baxter, the release manager for the Python language.
The main conference programme features an array of speakers from different fields presenting on the Linux kernel, the X Window System, media, applications, desktop, law, security and usability.

LCA 2008 will take place at the University of Melbourne from January 28 to February 2 at the University of Melbourne. You can register online at http://linux.conf.au/register. More information on the conference can be found at: http://linux.conf.au/.

If you go, I'll see you there. :)