Top Ten Ways to be Comfortable at a Conference

When you think of a conference you imagine mature adults sitting comfortably and calmly taking notes while listening to professionals. And that’s how it might appear when you walk through a conference scene in a hotel somewhere, but if you really consider what you are going to be doing it’s less comfort, more sitting in hard-backed chairs for 10 hours, starvation and possible dehydration, poor sleep, stress, nerves, contact with all type of germs, and body aches, headaches, and probably some type of cramps.  

Ahhhh! That sounds horrible! It does, but if you face reality now you can prepare and be the most comfortable person at the conference. Here are the top ten recommended preparation tips I’ve gathered from multiple websites and a few of my own. Remember this isn’t a full preparation list for a conference. This is a comfort list.

1.      Buy a nice business satchel or bag and plan to ditch your purse. (Did I mention this is gender sexist – sorry but I’m a girl. If you are a guy some of this still applies. Read on. I double dog dare you.) You are going to want to have a lot of stuff at the conference while still looking neat and professional. Also no one wants to carry two bags. Also, if you are attending a conference where you need to bring paper, buy a nice business folder to keep those papers nice and neat. Consider one that can roll like a suitcase if you have back issues.

2.      Bring a sweater. No one has ever gone to a conference and not been freezing. I don’t know why, but they keep it like a meat locker in those types of places. I have this weird feeling it’s a conspiracy of some sort but I haven’t figured out why …

3.      Buy conference shoes. If you are like me everything in your personal home shoe store is going to either be comfortable and not professional, or professional and not comfortable. Go out and buy some shoes that are both. I went to Marshalls and found these awesome padded flats for $30. It was worth it. Here’s the link to their store: http://www.marshallsonline.com/

4.      Buy a self filtering water bottle from Walmart or Target. It’s smaller than most water bottles and you can refill it in the bathroom and not worry about getting dirty water because it filters it for you. If you don’t do water bottles, prepare to bring two or more to each conference day. Some conferences offer water, but then you get unfortunate problems like spilled it because it’s an open glass and can’t get to the water when you can’t stop hacking.

5.      Bring a cushion or one of those lower back pillows. You are going to be sitting for a ridiculous amount of time and probably on uncomfortable chairs. Having a little cushion stowed away will be a life saver. Also don’t forget to hold that posture. Poor posture is the #1 leading cause of lower, middle, and upper back pain. Also make sure you get up and stretch or move around a little at least once an hour. No one will judge you for stretching. They wish they had the balls to stretch in public.

6.      Bring Tylenol or IBprofin, Pepto, Cold Medicine, allergy meds, etc. Trust me, you will use one of them.

7.      Bring vitamin C, Airborne, or Emergen-C in case you feel a cold coming on at the last minute or catch something at the conference. Don’t forget that little tiny bottle of hand sanitizer too. Also a few tips from that movie Contagion  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sYSyuuLk5g  try to avoid touching your face and wash your hands regularly.

8.      Bring snacks. Stock up on portable snacks like granola bars, string cheese, apples, bananas, baby carrots. I recommend being as healthy as you can because you want to give your body all the right stuff to feel it’s best during this conference and filling yourself with muffins and PopTarts is only going to make you feel haggard and get a stomach ache. Also if you bring extras, you will boost your networking potential.

9.      A word of caution regarding power bars, energy drinks, and the like. Check the labels and make sure you are not just shoving sugar and caffeine down your gullet because all that’s going to do is give you the jitters, dehydration, and eventually a crash burn around 10 a.m. That’s not the way to power up. Give yourself healthy real energy with good proteins, fruits, and veggies. If you accidently trust a power bar and get the shakes, eat protein to counter the sugar, drink lots of water, and don’t panic that’s just going to make it worse. Remember no one can tell when you have the jitters, breathe deep, and try to relax.

10.  A little redundant but the last tip is Relax! Depending on what kind of conference you are going to, there will probably some kind of stress. Either work related, travel related, event related, or because you want to get something important out of this or it means a lot to you – either way there is going to be some stress. Try not to let it get to you. It’s kind of like a wedding in a way. You want it to be perfect and you want to get everything you came for or everything you put into it, but things are going to go wrong. Nothing can be perfect, but let’s face it, nothing interesting is ever perfect, so sit back and try to chill because you are only going to get what you allow yourself to get out of this experience. Be “the shinny happy center of the universe” – Fight Club – and think happy thoughts when everything crashes down all around you.  Here’s a Fight Club link because I like you https://www.google.com/search?client=browser-rockmelt&channel=omnibox&aq=f&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=pathogen#q=fight+club&hl=en&client=browser-rockmelt&channel=omnibox&prmd=imvnsb&source=univ&tbm=vid&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=Tek5T7CyEIiOiAKx5uWSDA&ved=0CJABEKsE&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=cfd8ae6c90ddf5cf&biw=1212&bih=685