looking at machine vision systems....you could certainly learn about a different area of computing. The Vision Show West 2002 will be a very small show (in Santa Clara Convention Center), and most of the people there will be very knowledgeable about their field, and happy to share some of their knowledge. I'll know at least a couple of the exhibitors, probably about 5.

DiskCon is the disk drive trade show. If you're not involved with bulding disk drives it's not very interesting.

I think the best trade shows in Silicon Valley are Embedded Systems Conference (the most small computing stuff) and Semicon (the most moving stuff, like high speed stages and ultra precise (nanometer) stages).

Tony