As you prepare to travel to Convention, allow someone who spends time each weekend in an airport and 90% of his nights in hotels to provide you some helpful tips.
A few days before you leave make a list of what you need for the trip include both personal and fraternal items. A list will help keep you from running around at the last minute looking for things; it can help insure you’re not wondering if you grabbed everything once you’ve left and finally will help insure that you don’t pack more than you need. It’s a long weekend of business not a 2 week cruise, pack accordingly.
Know the size limits for a carry-on if you’re flying. As pretty much everyone charges for checked bags these days, airlines are getting stricter about the size of a carry-on and have enlisted TSA to help them enforce their rules. One way they are doing this is by placing a piece of Plexiglas in front of the x-ray machines to ensure only properly sized bags make it through. You don’t want to wait 20 minutes in the security line just to get up to the x-ray machine and your bag not fit. You thought waiting in line once was bad, try doing it twice.
Speaking of the security line, there’s nothing more annoying for frequent travelers than being behind someone in the security line that doesn’t know what they’re doing. With no line I can make it through security in less than 60 seconds, even though I travel with two laptops, two phones, two bags and all my toiletries in my carry-on (yes, I have timed myself). To make your time in the security line shorter I recommend doing the following.
- Put everything you would normally put in your pockets in your carry-on before you get in line. This includes your cell phone, keys, change and the like – you won’t need any of these between the time you step into the security line and the time you pass through the other side. Feel free to toss your watch in your bag too if you have a metal band. By the time you make it to the front of the line you should have nothing in your pockets other than your wallet and boarding pass.
- Pack your carry-on in a way that allows you to get the necessary items out of it quickly. You’ll need to pull out any large electronics like an iPad or laptop as well as your toiletries. Don’t pack these under everything else or inside three of four pockets. You’ve got to pull them and return them to your bag quickly, make it easy on yourself.
- Dress appropriately for the metal detector. Those fashionable jeans with all the extra rivets on them and the giant belt buckle are not a good idea. You’re not going to be discovered as the next great trendsetter at the airport, so unless you enjoy passing through the metal detector multiple times and then having to go through a pat-down and wanding it’s best to dress down. Likewise shoes that require you to sit down to take on and put off are not as good as ones you can slip on and off with ease.
Once you’ve made it to your terminal, but before you get on the plane, try and take the items you’ll want during the flight out of your bag and carry them in your hands. Don’t be the guy holding up the line to get seated because you’re trying to get your book and iPod out of your bag before you put it in the overhead cabinet get out of the aisle. Plus, have you ever tried to grab headphones out of your bag when you’re in the middle seat between two people who are spilling over their seats’ boundaries and suffocating you?
While getting to and from Convention quickly and easily is important remember that you’ll be spending at least three nights and three days sharing a hotel room with at least three other people. While spending such a short time in a hotel isn’t that big of a deal there are a few things you can do to make sure your stay is a little more enjoyable.
The first thing to do when you walk into your hotel room is to hide the TV remote. Your time over the next 3 days is limited and the last thing you should be doing is spending time holed up in your room watching TV instead of networking with other brothers. If you want to know what’s happening in the world or how your team did last night read about it online. You don’t want to get sucked into three hours of ESPN and miss out on an opportunity.
Second, and I can’t recommend this strongly enough, unpack. Do not attempt to live the next three days out of your suitcase. Doing so will increase the time it takes you to get ready every day, increase the time it takes you to pack up and leave and undoubtedly lead to a hotel room that looks like a tornado went through it. Don’t use up all the hangers or drawer space since your sharing your room, but definitely stake a claim to some of it. Once you’re unpacked you can use your empty bag or suitcase to collect your dirty clothes, insuring that your dirty chones aren’t laying around when one of your roommates, who was out networking instead of watching TV, brings his new friend up to the room.
Finally, if you really want to get a jump on getting ready in the morning take time the first night to iron your clothes. No matter how well you packed, your shirts and pants will have creases in them that will need to be ironed out. You can wait to do this each morning but we all know you’re going to be waking up late and rushing to make the first meeting of the day, especially when the shower and iron have to be shared by four guys. So make this one easier on yourself too by doing it before it needs to be done.
While I can’t guarantee that you’ll have a good trip hopefully by following these tips your travel itself will be less stressful and you can spend more time concentrating on the important aspects of Convention.
Images found via Flickr.com
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