Convention Survival Kit

(Authors Unknown)

Getting the most out of your convention or conference – Travel and convention tips from seasoned conventioneers.

Before you go

• Share your plans and hopes for what the convention will give you with your family. They’re being left behind, and may have concerns of their own, so open communication now will help ease any issues.
• Complete any big or complicated tasks that should be taken care of while you’re away — car oil changes, for example, or specialist appointments. It’ll save you worrying about it while you’re at the convention.
• Go through all the documentation the conference organizers have provided ahead of the conference. This will usually include a timetable of events, seminars and panels.  Decide which events you want to attend, and mark them down.  This is a good time to figure out what it is you want to get out of the conference, and make your selections accordingly. Take note of which events cost extra, and budget accordingly, so you aren’t caught by surprise at the convention.
• Study the floor plan of the hotel, if it’s provided, and figure out where each event you want to attend is located.
• Now is the time to make appointments and set up meetings with friends and colleagues you want to meet with at the conference. Contact them by mail, email or phone, and schedule in a time and place to meet, rather than leaving it to chance. With a scheduled time, neither of you will be distracted or worried that you’re missing something vital in another room.
• Pack your clothes according to what you’re doing at the conference.  Decide ahead of time what you’ll wear each day, and don’t pack anything else except those clothes.  This takes the worry and fuss out of your mornings at the conference, and makes your suitcase much lighter to haul around.  Do pack a light sweater or cardigan, however. Some climate controlled rooms are a little too hot or cold and the sweater will give you a degree of personal comfort.
• A dollar-stretching tip:  Many meals are provided as part of your conference registration, but not all of them. The cost of hotel meals and snacks can be prohibitive. As part of your packing, including a box of meal replacements bars or powders. When you’re on the go at the convention and get hit with dire hunger, they’re a heaven-sent convenience. They also provide actual meals when the conference doesn’t, and won’t impact your wallet.
• Finalize your travel arrangements, and don’t overlook your airport/hotel transportation. Check into hiring a limousine — often these are cheaper than taxis or even airport shuttle buses, especially if three or four people use the same limousine.
• If you’re sharing a room with other conference-goers, try to get to know your room buddies ahead of time. Often the conference organizers can give you the email addresses of your room buddies, or can forward an email from you on to them. It removes some of the awkwardness of strangers sharing a room if you’ve chatted by email or phone before the conference.
• Study the city where the conference is held. Read up a little about its history, and events and highlights the city has to offer while you will be there. If the opportunity to do some touring offers itself, you’ll be prepared.
• Build yourself a convention portfolio.  This can be either a satchel, briefcase or actual portfolio, or something as simple as a manila folder, or anything in-between. Whatever your choice, it should be something convenient to carry, as you’ll be carrying it everywhere you go while you’re at the conference.  Into this portfolio should go all the documentation you need while you’re there: timetables, schedules, note paper, business cards, and pens would be the basic essentials.  You could add an address book and journal — the details are up to you.
• Do print off business cards for yourself, even if you’re not representing a company.  A pretty business-sized card with your personal contact information is handy to hand out and ensures the recipient won’t get your address wrong. Add the cards to your conference portfolio.
• Draw up your own personal schedule of events you’ve chosen to attend, and any other meetings or appointments you’ve made for during the conference.  Print off each day on a separate sheet, with room for additions and changes.
• Pack into your suitcase a spare duffle bag that packs flat.  This is for “just in case” — if you collect a load of goodies, gifts and freebies and your suitcase is already filled to the max, being able to dump extra stuff into the duffle bag will save your sanity.  Tip: Don’t put fragile stuff into the soft-sided duffle bag.  Disperse the goodies throughout your suitcase, padded by your clothes.  Put robust items like dirty laundry and smalls in your duffle bag.

When you get there

• Register for the conference straight away, collect your conference documentation and take it back to your room.
• Unpack everything and hang it up or put it away in drawers.  Much saner than living out of a suitcase, and it saves wrinkles.
• Go carefully through your registration packet.  Pull out any vital documents, and add them to your conference portfolio. Put the rest of the package away in your suitcase.
• Spend an hour finding all the locations of everything in the hotel. The hotel won’t look anything like the floor plan led you to believe it will, and if you get the locations straight now, it’ll save frustration when the conference has started and you’ve got five minutes to find a room.
• Learn how to start a conversation with a stranger. This is a skill that is easy to pick up. The secret is to remember that at conferences, there are a lot of strangers standing around wishing they had the guts to start talking to people, too. Therefore, almost any conversational opener, even the most stupid one, will usually be met with a sigh of relief and the conversation with flow after that.  You may occasionally meet someone who snubs you — don’t let it knock your confidence.  The vast majority of people respond to conversation openers with pleasure.  If you cultivate this skill, you’ll never be left standing in a corner, alone, at any conference event.
• Take advantage of opportunities that open up. If you’re invited to a private party, or a tour, take the chance, unless it conflicts with something you really wanted to attend. If there is a clash, see if you can reschedule the event.
• At seminars and panels, ask questions.  This is your big chance to ask tailored, one-on-one questions of experts and professionals that you will not get access to in any other way.
• Save your receipts. Slip them into your portfolio, and record any other expenses that don’t have a receipt. You can often write off the expenses of a conference against your income, come tax-return time. Do check with your accountant or tax advisor on this issue.
• Take whatever time you might have free to tour the city you’re in. This is where your homework pays off: you’ll know exactly where to head and where to find it, and can maximize your spare time.
• Each day, write notes or outline points of any interesting events, moments, or information that happens to you. You can use the paper in your conference portfolio, or keep a special journal or diary.
• Phone home once a day to let them know how things are going.  Money-saving tip: use public phones in the lobby, not your hotel phone, and reverse charges.  It’s much cheaper, and avoids the surcharges the hotel will put on your accommodation bill for each phone call.
• Each morning over breakfast, check your day’s schedule and make any adjustments.

Fitness &  health

• Don’t give up on the gym while you’re at the conference. Small changes to your schedule can result in severe physiological upsets, and at their mildest can drain you of energy. Conferences are always go-go-go, too. You will gain more energy and calmness if you keep up your regular gym routine at the conference.
• Get up at the same hours you do back home, and try to get to bed at the same hours. This can be difficult, but a good night’s sleep will do wonders for your energy and attitude the next day.
• Drink lots of water. It will provide energy and re-hydrate you while you’re locked inside air conditioning for 24/7. If you’re drinking alcohol, the water will also help combat the dehydrating effects of booze on your system.

When you get back

• Send thank-you notes to everyone who needs or deserves one. Don’t put this off, as the longer it takes to get around to doing it the easier it is to not start at all.
• Send email or post letters to everyone you want to keep contact with. Send them copies of any photos you took that they’re in.
• Write a memoir or journal entry of everything that happened.  You can use your portfolio for this, as you took notes throughout the conference, and don’t have to try and remember everything. Do it early, before your memory fades. Not only is this a very personal souvenir of the event, but if you attend the same conference next year or in the future, the written record of the past event will give you invaluable tips and suggestions for your planning of the next event. If you keep it purely as a memoir, you can add it to the photographs you took at the conference, for a complete record.
• Write next year’s conference in your diary, if you plan to attend, and set up a savings budget for next year!