You can still register for OSCOM 3.
http://www.oscom.orgThey have tutorials with Zope, Midgard, and Apache Lenya. I am attending the Zope tutorial, mainly because I have actually looked at python code before :)
I except seeing the other systems and just being with other open source CMS hackers will be very educational.
So yes, we definitely need to look at what other CMS packages do, and use them for inspiration.