Q:

How to address a professional contact made a year ago?

I need to send an email to a contact I've made a year ago while traveling. I've met this person by popping up on the company and asking if "someone could talk to me." 
I have interest in working for them and would like to drop a notice now (a month to my travel) to see if I could get to know more people there and specially if they manage to receive me in a more structured way so I get to talk a bit with some of the technical guys. 
How should I approach this situation?
Adding more info:
Hello jmac thanks for the reply, I have not sent many messages for this person. The person is indeed located in another country, she is based in Switzerland while I'm in Brazil.
How did I met this person... A year ago I've seen an announce in LinkedIn inviting people to do judo and work in Switzerland. As I've previously lived in Germany and know some German I thought of it as a good chance to change airs. So I decided to see which company offer jobs positions in that area. I came to know they have a Microeletronics Center in this location. I've tried many times to contact them by phone and email with no luck. So I decided to just show up and see if someone could talk to me.
Of course I was received and people where kind to me. But I could not do the next step which would be hired. So I set as a goal for the past year to improve my CV, I did courses learned new technologies made a paper publication in a decent conference. Hence I have "new things to show". 
As pointed before the important things is to get the person on the right mindset and this is what I'm attempting to achieve. I proper dropped email before I arrive can avoid the rushes from my last arrival while given a much better impression of my compromise in get where I want to (i.e. get a job position) 

A:

So, you briefly met someone and want to send them a message. I find that the key to 'random' emails is to get in the right mindset. I bet this connection is important in the company and that sense he/she is important they receive many 'random' emails a day from people. They get all these emails, but you are a step ahead because your email isn't completely random. You have met them before, so here is how I would right it.
Hello [First Name],
I'm interested in [whatever you want] because I'm [why you would be good for the position]. We met in [wherever you were when you met] and I learned [something you learned] from our conversation. I'm applied it to my [life/career]. Could we [whatever you want - ex: meet, talk, interview].
Hope this helps.
FYI: I'm an American, so your formatting may be slightly different. The key is to get his/her attention with what you want and then quickly remind him/her who you are.

