Here is a list of talks at the MySQL user conference that focus on new and upcoming features in MySQL. I will try to attend most of these myself, although I have some certifications to acquire and other topics of interest. It’s almost like I would like to split myself in multiple threads so I could see it all 
Tuesday
- New Replication Features
- Introduction to using DTrace with MySQL
- Falcon Storage Engine - Designed for Speed
Wednesday
- New foreign keys in 6.1
- Maria, the New Transactional Storage Engine for MySQL
- DTrace support in MySQL: guide to solving real-life performance problems.
- The Future of MySQL
- The future of replication
Attending these presentations should give you a good feel of what is up and coming in the MySQL world.
