Conference checklist: what to pack and plan
Three days of standing on a hard floor, talking to strangers, with your phone at nine percent by two in the afternoon. Everything below assumes that is true.
34 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- Before you go
- Ticket and confirmation, downloaded offline
- Pick three sessions you actually wantThree. A packed schedule means you miss the corridor, which is where it happens.
- Look up who is speaking and who is going
- Message two people you want to meet, before the event
- Hotel booked near the venue, not near the station
- Check whether lunch is included
- The bag
- Power bank and cableThe single most useful object at any conference.
- Laptop or tablet, and its charger
- Notebook and pen — faster than a phone in a dark room
- Business cards, if your field still uses them
- Refillable water bottle
- Snacks, for the two o'clock crash
- Painkillers
- Hand sanitiser
- Clothes
- Shoes you have already walked eight hours in
- Layers — rooms are either freezing or roasting
- One smarter outfit for the evening event
- A jacket with pockets
- Spare socks
- During
- Note one action per session, not the whole talk
- Photograph the slide with the source on it
- Write on the card or note where you met someone and why
- Eat lunch with someone new
- Leave a session that is not working
- Step outside once a day
- Afterwards
- Send the follow-ups within two days
- One page of notes for your team, not thirty
- Submit the expenses while you still have the receipts
- Pick one thing to actually try
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- What should I actually pack for a conference?
- A power bank, comfortable shoes and layers. Rooms are freezing or roasting with nothing between, and you will walk further than you expect indoors.
- How do I get value out of it?
- Pick three sessions you genuinely want, leave the rest of the day free for the hallway, and send the follow-up messages within forty-eight hours or never.