Ok, so not all of these may be earth-shattering, and may be more-or-less common knowledge, but I figured for any youngins out there travelling to their first conference, whether it’s a tech conference like Microsoft Ignite, AWS Invent or something else, to help keep things organized. I’ve been to MANY conferences over the years, and feel like after 2 decades, I more or less have my act together in this ONE AREA š
Note that while I mention some apps and services below, I don’t necessarily endorse any of these products or brands, nor am I paid by any of these companies. This article is all my personal experience and opinion, and some links are just simple examples I found doing quick searches.
Anyway, onto the tips; buckle in because this is a long one…
Keeping your Travel Information Organized
Keeping your travel information, plane tickets, reservations, expenses, and everything else organized isn’t always easy when you’re in a strange area and constantly juggling classes, conversations, meals, and travel.
Have a place to put your stuff: establish an envelope or folder for any actual paperwork you have regarding the event, and create a folder, preferably on cloud storage, for any notes and files. Put everything you get in those areas immediately and stick to it, so nothing gets lost. All opinions aside, the cloud storage recommendation comes with having a backup of your stuff; you can always print your boarding pass, etc from a hotel or conference kiosk if your phone or laptop are lost or damaged.
Use TripIt (service and app): while it’s not perfect, TripIt works great for helping me keep my travel plans and reservations in order. TripIt is mostly free, and works via an email gateway. After you set up your account, you forward your confirmation emails directly to the service, and it parses and automatically structures the data and displays it nicely in both the web site and app. While its not always perfect, it works very well for the common hotels and travel services. For a fee, you can subscript to TripIt Pro that includes text alerts for price changes, flight alerts, and a few other services including the ability to track your Airline miles.
Two suggestions for Tripit – always verify addresses, and make sure you fill in your full itinerary, even for stuff it doesn’t do automatically.
Organize Your Backpack
I love backpacks – I especially love good ones that have a million different compartments to deal with the plethora of techy junk we tend to haul around, with my favorite so far coming from Ogio. In addition to the backpack compartments, there’s a bunch of organizers, pouches, and containers you can use to sort out all your stuff so that you’re not constantly digging in your bag that’s now stuff under the plane seat.
- For starters, put anything you’ll need need on the plane into an easily accessible pocket on the front or top of your bag. This includes things like headphones, earbuds, earplanes, napkins (grab some!), your usb battery and so on. This makes it easy to grab what you need while you’re jammed into economy.
- All cables should be wrapped up. REPEAT: ALL CABLES SHOULD BE WRAPPED UP! I used to generally toss a bunch of stuff into my bag, including the various usb, micro-usb, lightning, and other cords, and realized I often had to dump everything out to find what I need. Once you figure out what cords you need, do yourself a favor and get a cable organizer pack to keep everything in order. They’re cheap and seriously worth every penny!
- Speaking of cords, the best way to figure out what to take is to put yourself in your hotel room – its the end of the day and you need to plug in all your gadgets – figure out what cords and adapters are needed to make it all happen. Remember that unless you’re going to some third-world country, most usb and cell phone adapters are readily available, so you don’t need those 12 spares. I also found that unless you need presentation gear, you likely won’t need much if anything else while roaming the floor.
- Also keep in mind most modern electronics with power bricks often work on both 120v (US) and 240v (European) voltages, so you may not need to carry a heavy voltage adapter. Verify the labels on the power adapters, and just get the actual plug adapters and you’re good!
In addition, I really recommend two gadgets: A bulk usb charger, and travel-sized outlet strip. Both have been invaluable when stuck at the airport waiting for a delayed flight, and the bulk usb charger helps eliminate carrying multiple wall-rats. There seems to be some neat combo-strips now that do both, but check reviews for quality! I prefer to keep separate devices.
Organize your Luggage
So, my advice in this area will be minimal, as there is an art to not over-pack, or under-pack for that matter. What I do is follow the weather report for my destination closely (no more than 3 days in advance!), look at my itinerary (on TripIt), and generally go by the following guidelines:
- Don’t forget your bathing suit. Even if you think you won’t need it, just bring one, its easy to roll up and stuff into the corner of your luggage, and you’ll thank me later.
- If you need pants or shorts, always bring at least 2 pair of each, possibly counting the ones you travel with.
- If there’s substantial temp differences between your starting point and destination, you may want to bring an appropriate shirt/shorts/jacket/etc in your backpack or carry-on, seperate from your checked luggage. (FYI, Las Vegas can be 110+, and if your luggage gets lost and you’re wearing a sweatshirt, woof).
- Don’t ever pack any valueable items or especially things like tablets or laptops in your luggage. Bags get lost and abused often!
- A trash bag or large plastic shopping bag work good for seperating your dirty stuff for the trip home
- Make sure to leave room for the goodies/swag you’ll bring home!
Conference Tips
Here are some conference tips I’ve found to be useful over the years:
- Most conferences nowadays have an app – get it ahead of time and pick your classes early – consider picking your classes on the plane if the app allows you to. Choose at least 2-3 classes for each time period, as they often fill up or you may change your mind. Also note where the classes are and keep in mind how long it takes to get from one to the next *ahemIGNITEahem*. Also look for repeats so you can choose a better class that doesn’t.
- Speaking of apps – BACK UP YOUR PHONE. Your phone can get lost, stolen or damaged, so make sure you back up those family pics and important information BEFORE you leave!
- LIMIT YOUR SWAG: I can’t stress this enough; I used to grab ALL da goodies at the various booths, and let me tell you – they ADD UP, and are HEAVY. Ask yourself if you really need that stylus, that t-shirt, that stress ball, etc. You’ll find that not only will you not use most of it, but your back will pay for it hauling it all to the airport. Things I’ve found to be useful: beer cozies, envelope openers, usb hubs, backup batteries, and sometimes a water bottle. T-shirts are good for sleeping clothes but limit how many you get.
- When you get back – immediately put or give away all the swag you got; I’ll admit I still have a backpack full of swag from last year’s Ignite. I should send it all to Goodwill or trash can.
- Between classes, stock up on water bottles – hotels charge a fortune for them so they’re good to have to stay hydrated both in the conference and back in your room. Likewise for snacks…that snack bar will disappear quickly!
- If you get there early, walk around the conference area and get the lay of the land. Most conference centers are awful for navigation and are often very confusing.
- Sales people are evil, and want to scan your badge…badly. I might even suggest using a temporary email address or alias to register for the conference, as you’ll be badgered by 10,000 sales people the minute you get back.
Staying In Touch
Make sure you leave time to network and talk to people, often at the end of classes, at the lunch table, or the receptions. Do what you can to make sure you can stay connected, including making sure to pack business cards, and keep a pen with your badge. Here’s some other tips I do to connect:
- Create a QR code with your contact info, and make it the lock screen on your phone or use it as a digital watch face; this way you can present it quickly and it lets people instantly add you to their contacts. Likewise test-drive scanning QR codes to your own and make sure they work.
- Remember to try to link up before walking away “Hey can I get your card/Facebook/LinkedIn/email?” If you get a card, keep a pen handy and jot what you talked about on it so you know why you have it.
- Most conference apps have an attendee list, so if anything, at least get their name and you can likely find the rest of the info later
Ok, this is the end of Part 1. Since there’s always a chance of WordPress corrupting a post, I figured I’ll end it here, and continue with PART 2…