Packing for Portland

[azurelunatic]

This entry is the start of a packing list so that things I meant to bring might not get forgotten. Suggestions are welcome.

Necessary:
* Clothing
** whole conference or plan on laundry?
** some socks in case of the chill
** Driving days outfit
*** Comfortable boob containment
** Attending days outfits
** Speaking day outfit
* Grooming equipment
** Hairbrush
** shampoo
** Makeup
** Deodorant
** razor
** face goop
** toothbrush, toothpaste, flossers
** more menstrual pads than I think are going to be necessary
* my own actual pillow(s)
* Walking shoes
* Tech
** Laptop & cord
** our presentation deck
** Phone & charger
** Fitbit & charger
** Power strip
** Football field (can use phone charger)
** Tablet & charger (three devices on one charger is too many)
** Chargy brick
** spare chargy brick?
* Medicinals
** ibuprofanity
** Orange soda
** Ginger of some description
** Breathing
*** Cough drops
*** decongestant
*** allergy meds
*** chest-clearing
** routine
*** the whole box in case needed
* Snacks
** Protein
*** Beef jerky
** Carbohydrate
*** Chocolate covered caramels
*** Chips (assorted)
** Fiber
*** Fruit (can get more there)
** Caffeine
*** Energy shots
*** Chocolate-covered espresso beans
** Sweets
*** Ghirardelli squares?
*** Fruit jellies
* paper and writing implements
* water bottle
* unbreakable coffee cup
* Business cards
* important addresses, phone numbers, and shit



Recreational:
* Cards Against Humanity
** Discard bin
** Markers
* Perfumes
* A book
* Nailpolishen?

Comments

[azurelunatic]

I started this list before the stress dream about not having the schedule, not knowing which building or letter (was it, like, Davis E or Elvey E or maybe Elvey F?) and being escorted to a location I thought was wrong, and the room was too small and too hot, and then I didn't have the number for security to ask what it would be, and they didn't understand my question about what building I was even in, and then there was a bad copy of the schedule with it combined with a National Geographic picture, and then my dad said it was a really bad copy and asked me if I wanted to see the original image and I said yes and he produced the National Geographic image very proudly as if I should be happy to see it, when I'd thought he'd meant the schedule image.

Fortunately, I woke up. And Kat will have all the maps.

[siliconshaman]

Packmule?

[azurelunatic]

Car.

[silverflight8]

related to pens & writing implements: make sure you have a pen on you in somewhere easy to get. admittedly my experience is mostly flying (so it's REALLY good to have a pen in your carry-on purse, not your carry-on bag and definitely not in your checked) for the invariable paperwork you find yourself filling out. Often midflight, because that's how Canada customs rolls.

IDK how long you're going but I also recommend some plastic bags for storing random things (that might get wet?), ziploc bags for small things, a purse you can store small stuff or a water bottle or what you normally carry in addition to what suitcase/backpack you're travelling with.

Also sunscreen.

[siderea]

I'm impressed you managed to get chocolate onto the list under three different headings. (How did you miss "Medicinals"?)

[azurelunatic]

Because it's usually not, for me. For soothing, tea is better; for menstrual woe, caffeine and steak.

[nadyne]

Deck in both PowerPoint and in PDF. Test your .pptx on PowerPoint 2007, 2010, and 2013 (Windows), and 2008 and 2010 (Mac). Test the PDF in full-screen mode in Reader (Windows) and Preview (Mac).

USB stick with all of the above versions of your deck. Also Dropbox or some other cloud just in case you get well and truly hosed by the presentation gods.

In other words, my goal for my deck is that it will work pretty much no matter what hardware/software I throw at it, and that I have sufficient backups that I could put it on pretty much any machine and have it work. If something goes truly pear-shaped, I can use someone else's laptop and download it from the cloud and still be able to have it all work.

I like this post about presentations, which includes advice about what to have with you (and also has a great example of a test slide that you can use to ensure that everything is displaying the way that it should):
http://randsinrepose.com/archives/very-important-strangers/

(Also remember that my presentation help offer is still open. My schedule next week is weird since I'm speaking at a conference myself. Totally available, and I know your hours are nonstandard (which means that since contractors are crazy early-morning people, late afternoon / early evening is a perfectly fine option), and we can sort it out.)

Practice your talk in the outfit that you plan to wear. I talk with my hands, I broke a necklace in the middle of a talk (which at least throws you off your stride). I've also discovered that the one blouse that looks great on me can get weirdly twisted when I'm walking and talking, so that blouse is not a talk for giving a blouse. I can't wear a cardigan when I'm giving a talk, because the aforementioned handwaving inevitably results in me getting stupidly caught up in my cardigan. Make sure that your outfit has a waistband or pockets or something that you can tuck a microphone pack into, in case that's your setup. It sucks to show up in a great dress without pockets and find out that you've got a microphone pack that you're just going to have to have in your hands because there is nowhere else for it to go.

Lip balm is somehow always the thing that I lose, and that I discover that I need the most on a trip. When I get nervous, I lick my lips, and I end up chapping them. If I have a lip balm, I apply that instead when I get nervous. This is my weirdness, not yours, so you'll have to decide if there's anything in that little tale that's of use to you.

My travel tech kit contains:
* ethernet cable
* USB to phone cable
* projector adapters
* USB stick (you never know when you'll need it)
* a presentation clicker (although I honestly never use it, it's gotten me brownie points with others before)
* an audio cable
* a car USB charger
* a lip balm (see above)
* a pen (blue or black, in case Official Forms are needed)
* an extra-fine-point Sharpie (black, it's the most versatile)
* a small three-outlet power strip (also has a couple of USB plugs, very very useful in a conference setting)
* cough drops, ibuprofen (both from the medicine cabinet at the office, since they're conveniently packaged for this purpose)
(my laptop power cable is too big to fit into my tech travel kit, it has its own space in the bag)

If at all possible, I try to avoid doing laundry when I'm at a conference. There's way more stuff to do than there is time at a conference, and adding laundry to the list reduces available time. Although laundry does enforce not-conference (read: spoon-replenishing) time, so that might be a stance I should reconsider. Hmmm.

Don't use the conference bag to schlepp your stuff doing the event. Have your own bag. Everyone else will be using the conference bag, it makes life a lot easier to be able to identify your bag. I've got a backpack from a previous VirtualHammerWorld that is in a current state of disuse if you'd like corporate branding. (And it's red, which also helps with identification.)

I do something possibly weird with my business cards. Before the event begins, I handwrite my cell phone number on a few of my business cards (they're printed with my office number, I learned the hard way that my cell does not go on my business cards). These cards are only given to women, and they're the "oh goodness I think this might be a weird situation and I'd really like another woman around ... " backup plan. If another woman calls/texts me and asks me to walk with her back to the hotel, or join her in a bar, or any of the other things that women sometimes need to do at conferences where we're outnumbered and there's booze and there's a risk of someone acting weird and something might just feel off, she gets my card with my cell number and the understanding that if she calls, I will drop everything to come help her out. There's strength in numbers, and I make sure that the recipients of my cell number know that I will help provide that strength in numbers if they need it (no questions asked, no complaints, just a companion and possibly a listening ear if they want. The handwritten-cell-phone cards are in a location so that is not conspicuous that I'm handing out specific information to specific people, but I do make sure that the recipient finds out that she's got my cell and she can use it at any time for any reason if she's uncomfortable.

Err, this got long, and I have no clue if it actually makes any sense, so take what you'd like from it, and I'm happy to help in whatever way that I can.

[azurelunatic]

This makes tons of sense. I may wind up making a scaled-up version of my meeting bag, and I should probably make sure that I have the nicotine gum in it, because my group at the conference will include a smoker. (I've never, and Kat is in the Rescuing Angel role for this group in general, but it doesn't hurt to have a backup.)

I may take you up on the presentation thing. Since this is an extension of Storytime With Kat And Azz (a phenomenon that I don't think you've ever been present for, but it tends to get the #dreamwidth channel sitting in a circle with hot cocoa) I am fairly confident that we could do this with two notecards with bullet points on them and a ball (for turn-taking purposes) but it would be very nice to have a deck to back that up.

[nadyne]

Storytime is a hard presentation style to get right. It's really good when done well, because people like stories. It's a difficult presentation style to get right because it's very easy to get lost in a story, or overload the story with too many details that aren't relevant to a larger audience, or forget to be very clear what the moral of the story is. Your session description is a really good one, which bodes very well for getting this style of presentation right.

For the user experience of your audience, it should be transparent to them about how you choose which person is speaking. I don't think a ball will work because it will make your audience focus on the ball itself ("when will it be the other person's turn?") instead of what you're actually saying. You don't want them focusing on the mechanics of your talk, you want them to hear your content.

You could structure a deck around the morals of your stories, and determine in advance what stories you're going to tell and how you're going to make them compelling stories to people who don't know anything about Dreamwidth or its history or its politics or its userbase. I think that the challenge that you are going to face is that you have a lot of stories to tell. Figuring out which are the best stories to tell to this audience such that they'll get something out of it that they can take back to their own projects is going to be difficult because you have so much material to choose from. And you want a really strong finish to wrap up your session, it's what people remember, so figure that one out in advance.

[azurelunatic]

AAA batteries

[azurelunatic]

Charger on the nightstand. Body wash. Print map. File hours.

[azurelunatic]

Water bottles in dishwasher.