Travel, the conference, and the return trip wear on a body and mind. Being prepared can remove the sting.

Conference preparation is more than charging the batteries, memorizing your presentation, and fueling the car. Getting your body ready is important.

Knowing your body and habits is key. There’s no one end all and be all of checklists. I’ll give you mine and let you work out yours.

1. Medications – prescriptions and otherwise. I take a few on schedule and always carry painkillers. (getting old?) – to prepare is more than carrying a pill case; it’s planning.

I first take out the pills for the trip, putting them in the case. Then it’s review time. Are any of those prescriptions going to need refills before I get back. If so, get them in before the trip.

Second is packing the pill case. Not in the suitcase! It needs to be accessible. On the latest trip I placed the pill container in the computer bag; pockets rock.  This allowed for easy and quiet access.

2. Sleep – get it ahead of time. Guilty of shorting myself at times. Better prep for me is to get adequate rest the day or two before traveling. If you like to travel at night, find time for a nap.

3. Hydration – oft forgotten when traveling. Recent drive to the #140Conf in Hutchinson was done with a cooler. Started with one cold drink, and colas and waters in an ice chest. Yes, you can stop and buy drinks, but bringing your own is cheaper. Don’t just choose sodas. I like to put away a bottle or two of water each day of travel. Drives and plane rides leave us dry.

4. Relax and pace yourself – not the same as getting enough sleep. Reduce stress before the conference and travel to get there. If possible, take off work early or the day before to prepare properly. More than getting all the underwear in the suit case, it’s about moving at a comfortable and low stress pace. I’m often anxious to get out the door, but find when I take time and enjoy the prep the trip is easier. For me, it’s helpful to have a checklist instead of winging it. My wife often gets me packed ahead of time, reducing pre-trip regimen to loading the car and packing the cooler. Relaxed ahead of time equals a better attitude.

5. Wear and pack comfortable clothes – traveling more than around the block or downtown, then comfort is key. Looking clean cut doesn’t require a suit and tie. Riding in a car or plane rumples things anyway, so pick out some jeans, a comfortable top, and your favorite shoes. I tend to the informal on personal trips, but for business I’m often in khakis and button up shirts. On the way though is jeans, tees, and sneakers. This helps with feeling relaxed as well as avoiding real discomfort. Likewise, you’ll feel relaxed avoiding the worry of spilling coffee on yourself.

Have a pre-trip regimen? I’d love to hear about it. Got a secret to resting up? What’s your favorite travel beverage if not water?

Disclaimer: I consume an inordinate amount of Diet Pepsi products and would recommend more water over more caffeine.

Similar Posts:

• Recovery

None Found

Interview with Violet Blue of tinynibbles.com and some of us less famous geeks. We’re talking about hooking up at SxSW, geek sex, and more.

(This is PG-13.)

None Found

The St. Louis Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America is putting on a PR Technology Day. Several speakers will come to educate and share.

I’m honored to have been asked to speak on Blogger Relations:

Bloggers are becoming increasingly important influencers for consumers all over the world. Maintaining good blogger relations can be critical to keeping your brand top of mind with consumers. Find out what tactics and strategies can help you excel at blogger relations.

It’s a topic somewhere in between the tools of Facebook, Twitter, and Google Analytics. Those topics and more will be covered at this half day event.

Running in three parallel tracts, attendees will need to pick and choose. There are no bad choices though and the speakers are experts.

PR Newswire and Maryville University are sponsors for this PRSA St. Louis event.

Similar Posts:

• Ask and deliver

None Found

Attending conferences is fun.  Bringing home gift schwag makes it even more fun. Witness above just a few items you might find in that bag they hand out.

I admit to loving new tees, a branded bottle opener, and especially little creatures. Stuff though tends to get lost, tarnished or forgotten. Often in just days. (Okay, so I still use the actual bags – most are ‘green’ these days.)

So what lasts longer?

Relationships

People don’t come in the schwag bag. oft times they aren’t bright, shiny, or even new people. Heck, you can’t even take them home. You can take home the relationships though.

Relationships don’t come in the bag either, that’s what you get when you look up from your notes, or laptop, and quit digging in the bag for that cool new tee. Relationships form when you turn to the guy or gal next to you and say hello.

Chances are at any conference you attend there are faces new to you. Seek these individuals out. Introduce yourself. Then ask about them.

Yep. Ask about them.

Why are they are that conference?

Where are they from?

What takeaways have they garnered?

What do they do?

What will they do with what they’ve learned?

Who have they connected with?

Who do they recommend you connect with?

Sounds like an interview? Maybe so, but these questions aren’t without value to you.

What you learn in just those minutes goes beyond the person you ask. Trust me; they’ll be happy you asked. Likely you’ll learn something or be introduced by them to someone else you can build a relationship with.

Rinse. Repeat. Relationship.

Move on as needed. Before you do though, be sure to ask a final question: how may I contact you. Accept a business card, even if it’s no the usual card.

Distill.

We talked about lasting takeaways. Relationships don’t last if they’re not nurtured.

Gather all conference contact information you received by hand.

Locate any conference provided lists of attendees and speakers.

Sort through what you have and add all of those individuals to your address book. Slug through it if you have to, but do it.

Add them on all the social networks you share with them. You’ll find that most business cards still only include name, phone number, email and address. LinkedIn and other social networks allow for searches; standard card information will nail it in most cases.

Follow up.

Start with a tweet or message on Facebook. Add them as contacts on LinkedIn and message them. Send an email to those not available on other social networks.

This doesn’t need to be the same day, but don’t wait one month. They’ll have moved back into their busy schedule by then.

Final thoughts.

Don’t be a pest. Let them lead the conversation. Learn more about them. Share what you do when asked.

And yes, there are people I wish I could have stuffed in the schwag bag to take home.  I continue to meet wonderful individuals at conferences of all types. These have turned into friendships and partnerships.  Don’t focus on what you get for just showing up. Dig in and get the value that conferences really have.

*photo of Yelp.com schwag provided at Show Me The Blog Conference, St. Louis.

Similar Posts:

• Conference Preparation – Keeping Your Health

None Found

Twitter is a great place to brainstorm.  I’m heading to SxSW Interactive for 2011. I hate doing things like that alone. In light of that, I’m brainstorming ways to get St. Louis folks going as well.  That lead to talk of sponsorships with Paul Swansen on Twitter.

Follow the link below to listen to his summary:

SxSW sponsorship ideas via twitter*

What are your thoughts on sponsors and sponsoring?

Should businesses send people to conferences such as SxSW?

Is it enough reason that a person wants to expand their network to consider SxSW?

* Shared with permission from Paul.Similar Posts:

• Saving my sanity one sketch at a time

None Found

Social Media Club is coming to St. Louis, and they want to talk about family. **

Chis Heuer, the founder of the Social Media Club is helping families understand the challenges, issues, and opportunities through this 12-city tour focusing on Social Media + Family. It’s a subject that isn’t discussed very often at social media gatherings where the focus has mostly been on marketing and charity, but as evidenced from the first event on the tour, it certainly deserves more attention.

Here’s the word straight from the event page:

Join us for our next stop on the Social Media Club Fall Tour 2010 for this important conversation about Social Media and Family. Leading the conversation will be Chris Heuer, joined by dads and moms who blog/podcast for a panel discussion around their use of Social Media. Following the panel and a brief Q&A, we will break out into small groups to expand the conversation over drinks.

Chevy is sponsoring and can be thanked for  drinks and appetizers being provided at this event. Also, Social Media Club is asking for a donation of $10 at the door and ALL proceeds with go to LetsCureCP.org. Please register for the event at St. Louis Social Media Club: Social Media + Family.

Chris Heuer asked me to join the panel for the St. Louis event.  Helping him prepare, I’ve created a short bio of an online dad. Reviewing this summary of the Atlanta instance of Social Media + Family opened my eyes and gave me some laughs. Check it out here Atlanta Social Media + Family recap.

Similar Posts:

• Saving my sanity one sketch at a time

None Found

Attending a conference is powerful.

Energy oozes from every speaker. Flashing before your eyes ideas come and go up on a screen. Overwhelming.

Making that experience better is what barcamps are all about. Attendees become participants; some even become discussion leaders. You are the star.

Realty barcamps are no different.

Organized by local Karen Goodman, #REBCSTL, is a St. Louis first.  Known as a ReBarcamp, events like this are the second largest type of barcamps across the US. Exciting times the Midwest jumping on the conference 2.0 bandwagon.

Why did I go to a ReBarcamp?

Being invited certainly didn’t hurt. Karen wanted to give me a chance to contribute and shine at the same time. How could I pass that up? It turned out to be a learning experience for me as well.

Focusing on blogging, social networking, and leveraging the web, made this a great fit. Approaching it from the realty point of view, gave it new context and opened my eyes. At heart realtors are small business owners, making getting social networking and blogging right a bigger impact than to big business.

Did I learn anything?

The session I learned the most in was lead by Eric Stegemann. Eric reviewed one lucky attendees site. Reviewed is putting it mildly. Beginning with top of the page, and what loads and is visible first, Eric tore apart each element.

Key to this tear down was bouncing it against visitor expectations. Do perspective buyers and sellers really need the Flash driven image display? What is the first thing they look for? Your number, price lookup, and more.  The page Eric worked over didn’t have any of the key elements ‘above the fold’. Fail.

Another thing was the content.  Realtors often contract out to have a site created or their firm provides one.  These are ‘stock’ sites with the same content every other realtor gets. Functional but  worthless to search. Likewise, not an eyeball grabber.

More lessons were learned.

Final thoughts on #REBCSTL

Substitute coffee, craft, or clothing shop and all the content of #REBCSTL would apply.

Setting up your first Twitter account? New to Facebook? Never blogged? This conference covered all of the 101 you needed to get started.

Need connections? Barcamps, and this one in particular, was all about introductions, story sharing, and ultimately new relationships.

Finally, Realtors are people too.

Similar Posts:

• Narrow Your Focus
• Conference Preparation – Keeping Your Health

None Found

The following will tell you all you need to know about getting your business online and being successful. Work it baby.

That’s deceptively simple sounding, and it’s got the tone you hear so often from people in any business that are hacking away at it. The sad truth is that many of those same folks won’t provide you much insight on how to get started ‘working it’.

Today I took time out to stop being cliche and share some real world information about getting started online. I joined Traci Knoppe with Missouri Business Online presenting part of a two part conference on creating a blog and the basics of using social networks.

Traci had been looking to put together some recorded video presentations on blogging and social networking as well as hold some day conferences on the topics. We’d been chatting on Twitter for a while and one day we decided to go off line and pick up the phone.

A couple of phone calls later we had Missouri Business Online. The business will be about the conferences and producing materials providing instruction and tips on blogging, social networking and social media. Our primary focus will be Missouri, with special attention to the St. Louis area.

Traci already has a site loaded with tutorials. At Genesis Blogging, you’ll find videos and articles full of information; information you can put to use immediately.

As a side benefit of our presentations today, a video is being created. This will be available in the near future on this blog as well as at Genesis Blogging. In the mean time, I’ll be cranking out more content in my style here, and Traci will do her thing with her blogs. Don’t tell Traci though, but I’m going to ask her to guest blog for me. Shhh.

So keep an eye out folks, and please continue to drop by here and on Twitter with your questions, tips, and rants.

Yours,
Todd/@tojosanSimilar Posts:

• Five Things Bloggers Can Learn From Elves
• Ask and deliver
• Saving my sanity one sketch at a time

None Found

This year was my first at South By South West and I had a blast!

Making it a real success though required more than just showing up.  South by South West is all about community and living on the Internet, as well as meeting up in person.  If you couldn’t bring the right tools along, neither of those would happen.

I’d have considered myself very prepared. Laptop, check. DSLR, check. P&S camera, check. Flip, check. Money, check.  It turns out both yes and no.

A laptop seemed like a great choice for an online/offline event.  I chose my 15″ MacBook Pro.  It’s not huge.  Let me tell you, it was about too much, besides holding one of the things I hadn’t thought to check, a battery.

A 15″ laptop doesn’t sound like it’s going to get in the way. That’s until you see how little table space there is to be found.  Often your laptop literally ends up on your lap.  Not a good choice for anything awkward, hot, or needing more space than you have. A great alternative, and much seen this year, are netbooks.  Miniature notebooks of all brands on hand, running a variety of operating systems.  These little gems provided both a low footprint, low weight, and were easier to stow and carry than a full size laptop.  I’m so convinced of this that I’ll be purchasing one for next year.

Canon, Nikon, Sony and more make great DSLRs.  The problem? They aren’t something you can stick in your back pocket, shirt pocket, purse, or want to wear around your neck all day.  (Well maybe if someone is paying you to.)  My Canon XTi quickly wore out its welcome with me by Tuesday of the conference.

A great alternative is a good quality point and shoot camera.  I brought along a simple 5 megapixel Nikon, but even it was a bit bulky.  If you don’t have a camera that slides into your pocket and doesn’t weigh much, consider getting one for your next conference, especially one as heavy duty with picture opportunities as SxSW.  The addendum to this note is about batteries.  Bring spares.  By spares, I mean at least two, and charge them up at night.

Video cameras were another great thing you’d think would be great to have along.  Again, a common mistake is to bring a full blown HD video camera.  The storage and carrying will kick your tail fairly quick.

One word answer:
Flip

Now, about the money.  Lots of folks brought cash.  Cash is a burden.  It’s a pain to dig in your pockets for. It’s easy to lose. Someone will always want to borrow it.

Bring a bank card, a charge card, or both.  Use them exclusively. It’s both easier to track expenses, and easier to spend.  There wasn’t any place I went that didn’t take a charge card as well as cash.

I covered everything in my small list in a bit of detail, but there’s a couple of other essentials.

Shoes – two pair – alternate them; bring three if you plan on dressing up

Hat – buy on site or bring

Business cards – 100 or so minimum – readable, interesting, easy to reach

Spare shirts/tops – BBQ

Last but not least of my recommendations can replace all but the money from the original list.  That would be a smartphone.

Smartphones, essentially hand held computers, provide for Internet access, photos, video recording, and can even work for contact information exchange.  The most common models I noted were the Blackberry and iPhone. Note that if this conference were in other parts of the world, likely it would have usable for charging purchases as well.

Some of the items in the short list, such as business cards, require a more in depth post. Those alone are probably worth more than one.  Just bring some please.

So I came prepared this year and perhaps overly so.  Next year my checklist will be shorter, lighter, and easier to carry.

What’s on your must have list for SxSW?

Yours,

Todd, @tojosan on TwitterSimilar Posts:

• Conference Preparation – Keeping Your Health
• Five Things Bloggers Can Learn From Elves
• Ask and deliver

None Found

It doesn’t look like much. It’s a small white board with some slap dash writing on it. Heck, it’s almost like chicken scratch in places, and the lines aren’t straight.

The board contains the presentations held during BarCampStL, BarCamp St. Louis. Notice the list isn’t formal, neat, and LUNCH is the biggest entry, but that’s how things work at a BarCamp.

BarCamps are about an unconference style versus the traditional way folks get together for conferences.  Instead of elaborate planning and plotting up front, it’s about the dynamics of real people interacting spontaneously.

St. Louis’s first BarCamp went extremely well in part because of this informal style.  It was cooked up by Ryan Keeter, Michael Austin, and yours truly had a hand.  The planning consisted of finding a spot, getting a sponsor (thank you Network Solutions), and posting the date, time and place.  Okay, someone had to work the deal with the City Museum, but that’s part of finding the place.

Real magic happened between the people who showed up and the venue.  There were over a dozen of us that attended, not including the drop ins from the City Museum IT guy and our bartender, Tatyana.  Each person brought their unique point of view and their backgrounds, but they also brought their hopes and visions about the future.

These individuals showed up and presented, listened, took notes.  They learned, instructed, and discussed their plans.  Bonding occurred not just over that, but over the food as well. (pizza, wings, salad, sodas, waters and a round of beers)

Enough about all of that though.  I’d like to just mention one person I bonded with, Karen Goodman, aka @karenstl.  Karen had some great questions about social networking in general, and specifically on Twitter.  Luckily I was able to share some insight in those areas.  In exchange, Karen gave me the grand tour of the City Museum.  Here’s her collection of City Museum photos.

Everyone that attended was a rock star in their own right. I’ll be covering more of my experiences with those folks in upcoming posts, as well as some pictures of them and the City Museum. Look for more link love as well.

If you posted about BarCampStL, please link here and I’ll link back to you as well.

Please show our sponsor some love, Network Solutions.Similar Posts:

• Ask and deliver

None Found