On Saturday morning, I’ll be on a plane from London Heathrow to San Francisco to take part in the 2009 IABC World Conference.

The prime reason I’m going is because I’m receiving the 2009 Chairman’s Award on Sunday evening, a singular honour for an IABC member which, frankly, I’m thrilled to be getting.

You can read more about that in my post in February.

I arrive on Saturday and will be at the Leaders Reception event that evening. The conference actually starts on Sunday evening with the Opening General Session (which is also when the Fellow and Chairman’s Awards ceremonies take place) and continues through to Wednesday.

On Sunday afternoon, I’m leading a pre-conference workshop on podcasting which I hope will result in more people understanding the measurable value of audio in organizational communication and how easy and low cost it is to start a podcast.

A bonus for participants: my podcasting partner Shel Holtz will be taking part as well.

(I have planned that we’ll actually do a podcast in the workshop; I’ll add a link to it in this post if we do.)

Sunday’s actually the most event-filled and social day of all for me. In the evening, after the conference Welcome Reception, Shel and I are hosting an FIR listener Dinner, an opportunity for us to get together with listeners to our podcast. And what a line-up we have!

Space is limited and about full. But if you really would like to come, just ‘@’ Shel (who made the restaurant booking) or me and I’m sure we can squeeze you in.

On Monday morning, Shel and I will be recording FIR episode 455 live from the IABC conference, from somewhere in the exhibition hall with all the ambient noise, people talking, etc, to add that “I’m almost there” listening experience.

And if you’re actually there at the conference, why not come along and be part of the show? We plan to be recording from about 10.30am on Monday morning.

And then, just like Cinderella, I have to take the coach home. Not at midnight, though, some hours earlier than that, and I’ll be on a 777 redeye headed back to London Heathrow.

So a fleeting visit to a city that is one of the most pleasant in North America – and whose city government is doing some interesting things with Twitter – plus far too brief a time seeing friends and meeting people I know of and haven’t yet got to meet.

But better than not being there at all and I will make the most of it.

I’m not sure what time I’ll have to blog here while on the road. I also have editor rights for In Session, the official conference blog, but I don’t know if I’ll have time to write there either (but going to shoot for posting something later today about my podcasting workshop).

It’s more likely that I’ll be at my favourite social places like Twitter, Flickr and Audioboo (those are links to my accounts if you’d like to connect). If phone calls aren’t going to cost me an arm and a leg while roaming, maybe even ipadio as well.

I might even be able to do some Qik video thanks to Jackie Danicki at Qik: I’ll be trying out a Qik Roam SIM card while on this trip.

Looking forward to it all!