<<i'm off to london city and gatwick atc visits this week and next, any suggestions on how to make these dates more productive and informative??>>
Jeez cptlaury... sentences and proper nouns start with capital letters! Don't write like this in your exams (if you get that far).
When visiting an ATC unit try and ask as many questions as possible, even if they might sound daft. Ask the controllers what particular problems they might have and if they have any new equipment and how it has helped them in their task. You might bring up the subject of electronic flight progress strips as there is a lot of discussion about that. (Can you think of any single, very significant advantage of paper strips over electronic?)