Friday, July 20, 2012

Tips for Conference Goers

Watch Out for Stowaways
It's conference season, and no matter what your line of work, the best tips about packing for/traveling to/and getting the most from a professional gathering come from writers, a couple of thousand of whom will descend upon Anaheim next week for Romance Writers of America's 2012 National Conference.

The first four of the following links suit women attending any kind of conference. The last two are specific to RWA 2012. Read on and travel well.

Jami Gold has crafted a packing list I'm going to copy and use and/or modify for every trip I take. (If you run into her in Anaheim, thank her for me.)

Once you've assembled everything you plan on your trip, you have to pack it. At Lady Scribes, Erin Knightley created a video that shows her packing a single carry-on bag for RWA 2011. She fit multiple outfits into a single carry-on, thus avoiding a checked-bag fee. As if that feat weren't enough, she made follow-up video showing the outfits she wore at the conference. I'm in awe.

August McLaughlin recently traveled to Thrillerfest. Luckily for us, she shared her pre-conference preparation.

A follow-up post by August reminds us the best-laid plans can blow up in our faces--but travel bloopers make excellent conversation starters.

If you're going to RWA2012, the following links are essential reading. At Writers in the Storm, Jenny Hansen offers ideas for dining on the cheap in Anaheim plus other conference tips. She also offers the perspective of an Orange County local re things to do/places to see outside the conference hotel.

Wherever you're headed this summer, have a wonderful trip.

7 comments:

August McLaughlin said...

Tis the season of awesome writers' conferences. :) Thanks for including me in this terrific post, Pat! Wishing everyone happy travels, learning and mingling.

Lark Howard said...

Thanks for the terrific links, Pat! RWA is always fun but packing is sometimes a challenge--I blame it on the shoes. I'll try to follow Erin's lead but doubt I'll get down to carry-on only.

The restaurant link will be helpful since finding healthy, reasonably priced places to eat is usually difficult.

And the travel bloopers were great!

Pat O'Dea Rosen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pat O'Dea Rosen said...

Thank YOU for the tips, August. I appreciate the reminder that the things that go wrong enroute jumpstart conference conversations.

Pat O'Dea Rosen said...

Your shoes always make the outfit, Lark, so you get more luggage leeway than the rest of us.

Enjoy the healthy, reasonably priced places to eat, but have a drink at the bar for me.

Enjoy the conference--and rock those shoes.

Sarah Andre said...

Thanks Pat!
I've printed out a few link information/maps. Really appreciate your thorough research for those of us who are lazy...I mean 'wing it.

Pat O'Dea Rosen said...

Hi, Sarah,
Jami, Erin, August, and Jenny did the work, not me. Have a terrific time in Anaheim.