About a month and a half from now, the industry's eyes will turn to the Inside Self-Storage World Expo, Sept. 29 - Oct. 1 in New Orleans. Thousands of participants will descend upon the Crescent City looking to learn, network and collaborate.

That's right, I said a month and a half, which means if you're not already making plans, now's a good time to start.

One resource you can and should use if you're planning on attending is the ISS World Expo New Orleans 2010 forum on Self-Storage Talk. Consider this the official pre-show chatter spot. Need help finding affordable airfare? Curious which vendors will have a booth? Want to start priming the presenters about their sessions, helping them mold their presentations? Have some ideas for restaurants for your client outings?

Or, maybe you'd like to get a jump start on your networking by combing the SST rolls for developers and investors who will be attending. Whatever communication you would like to make before the show, the New Orleans forum is the place to do it. Additionally, any of your pre-show questions can be answered here, and if they can't be directly answered by one of your SST peers, someone will direct the question to the appropriate person on the ISS expo planning team.

Remember that this area of the forum will be particularly active during the show. If you get a spare moment in New Orleans, you should hop on your laptop or mobile device and post on the forum. Share feedback on events as they're happening, and you might see your suggestions implemented on the spot. After the show has wrapped up, this forum will be a great place to post your final thoughts and comments.

Do I have you convinced that you should be posting in the New Orleans forum? Good! All you have to do to participate is register a username (if you don't already have one), which you can do here. It's free and it only takes a few minutes.