It wouldn't hurt to get ahead. In your case you don't need prep right away, and have the luxury of practicing ahead of time. If you use ECIC, they have a "customer for life" philosophy, so you can always attend and start fleshing out your skills, and as you get closer, you can audit a seminar and get "recurrent". If SWA is on your list and/or you don't have an ATP yet, now is the time to start lining those off the list of things to do.

I went to an Emerald Coast seminar the other day and it was a great learning experience. Good place to start networking too.