Achieve Greatness is the theme for the 2012 IASA EducationalConference and Business Show, which gets underway Sunday night atthe San Diego Convention Center. (Being from the small, butbeautiful town ofBright, Indiana, I appreciate associations thathold their conferences inSouthern California.)

We all look for nice, uplifting slogans for conferences thesedays. Certainly achieving greatness is an outstanding goal, butreally, does anyone want to achieve anything less than greatness?Has anyone ever proclaimed they were intent on achievingmediocrity?

I'm sure some college sports teams value slogans asinspirational, but a conference with attendees as divergent asIASA's—accountants and IT folks—should probably have some differentexpectations.

My plan for this year's conference is pretty simple: learnsomething. The conference runs over a period of four days, so I'veset a modest goal of learning four new things over the course ofthe conference. It would be nice if one of the things I learned wassomething important—like the secret to a successful core systemsimplementation—but more likely it will be something more subtle,which is not necessarily a bad thing.

If we put together all the little things we learn in life theyoften add up to the "aha" moments we all dream about (or havenightmares over), but too rarely experience.

That's why I'm excited about some of the sessions that arescheduled—even the one where I'm moderating/speaking—and inparticular the CIO/CTO Roundtable on Tuesday where all the CIOswill try and scare themselves with their visions of the future—sortof like telling ghost stories around the campfire.

I'm often educated by wandering among the booths at the businessshow and picking the brains of some of the vendors. When I speakwith insurers, the comments I hear are often guarded, but vendorsare more likely to let it all hang out when discussing anindustry-related subject.

So my personal theme for IASA 2012 is Learn Four Things. I mighteven clarify that to include Learn More about Four Things. I'm ajournalist, after all, so that means I have to know at least alittle about everything.

It may seem like a modest proposal, but if each of us couldlearn one new bit of information every day—something that hasmeaning in our life—we would all be smarter people than wecurrently believe we are. Which is why two old axioms have beenused about me for years: He's smarter than he looks; but he's notas smart as he thinks he is.

I'm not sure what to do about the first part, but hopefully I'llmake a dent in the second this week at IASA.