At the end of June, Richard Thomas steps down from the post of information commissioner, after five years in the job.
His valedictory address will be given at the FOI Live annual conference.
It's an indication of the considerable impact Thomas and his team have had on the debate about openness and privacy, most clearly highlighted in the row over MPs' expenses, that what would otherwise be an event of frankly little interest except to specialists, will be eagerly anticipated in wider circles.
Thomas has made clear his frustrations over the past five years with the way the FOI Act has been implemented in public sector organisations.
He has asked for greater powers and some of them have been granted. Where he has not got his way - and this may be more serious in the longer run - is in asking for greater resources for his office.
Earlier this year, Thomas appeared in front of the Commons' justice select committee and complained that he has just 53 case workers dealing with FOI complaints, from the whole public sector. In comparison, the Ministry of Justice, for instance, employs 28 staff just to deal with incoming FOI requests.
When Thomas was appointed, there was a danger of FOI becoming a turf wars issue across government, with departments bedding in on one side and Thomas and his team on the other.
Major lapses in data security by the government
In fact, the issues of information sharing, data security and privacy have moved to the forefront of hot political debate, initially in the light of major lapses in data security by the government. Then came a growing political furore over both how the government wants to share information in areas such as health, child protection and, of course, in its plans for ID cards, and, at the same time, wishes, it seems, to protect certain parts of its operation from being open to scrutiny - MPs' expenses being the prime example.
In February, Thomas was nominated as a champion of civil liberties, when he ordered the government to reveal details of two reviews into the contentious ID cards scheme, and criticised a culture of "creeping surveillance".
Of more concern to public managers has been Thomas's quiet but determined pursuit of greater powers to investigate what they are doing with data. In November 2007, the government finally agreed to Thomas's long-held ambition of being able to spot-check government departments' data security procedures, without having to first get their consent first.
Thomas has been something of a thorn in the side of those parts of government that do not relish the spotlight of greater scrutiny.
The question now is whether his successor, Christopher Graham, director general of the Advertising Standards Authority, will be able to continue and uphold the hard-won reputation of Thomas's office for dogged pursuit of its goals.
From Flip Chart Fairy Tales
From Bubb's Blog
