8 Things You Should Bring to a Tech Conference

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So let me guess – you are headed to a tech conference soon. However, whether it’s your first time or not, you are probably wondering to yourself – “what should I bring to a tech conference?”

See, the thing is – packing for a tech conference can be pretty tricky. You may think that it is the easiest thing ever and all what you need is your phone and your presence. Then you get there, and realize…. “oh man, I should’ve brought this!” “oh how could I have forgotten this???” This is why it is pretty important to read the agenda of a conference before attending so that you can pack accordingly.

Well, here is the article for you, where I list everything you should bring to a tech conference, tech summit, tech festival – just any type of tech event out there. Please note that this is my own recommendation and what I bring to tech conferences.

Item #1 to Bring to a tech conference: A Bag of Some Kind

Bringing a bag to any type of conference is essential. After all, you will need a place to store all of your necessities, along with all of the freebies, brochures, and business cards you will receive! Anything from a book bag to a purse would work. I would suggest getting a bag that is big enough to fit a laptop plus some more goodies. For instance, I personally use this book bag. It is able to hold my 15.6″ laptop, it’s pretty secure due to the huge flop in the front that covers the zipper, and has many different pockets. It also serves as my travel book bag and I receive lots of compliments on it. 🙂

Item #2 to Bring to a tech conference: Business Cards

Yes, I know what you’re probably thinking – why bring business cards if websites such as LinkedIn exist? And the answer is simple – while networking, you may never know what to expect.

Maybe the person you’re networking with doesn’t have a LinkedIn, or doesn’t use it as often. (I’ve run into this situation many times before, especially when the people love where they work hah.)

Maybe the person you’re networking with specifically asks for a business card.

Maybe you or the person you’re talking to has to be somewhere in the next 2 minutes, and neither of you have enough time to exchange LinkedIn contacts via phone.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

While it is still important to have a digital presence, I still believe it is important to have at least a few business cards just in case. What’s great too is that they’re many websites that have custom designs that you can choose from – such as Staples (if you want to get them in person) or Overnight Prints (if you prefer to order online and get it ASAP). And just to be organized, I bought two of these business card holders – one to keep my business cards in, and another to collect others’ business cards in.

Item #3 to Bring to a tech conference: Light snacks and water

Most tech conferences have breaks where they offer attendees free food. Yayy free food right? Until you find out “free food” consists of tiny bites such as chips, pretzels, a small sandwich, a slice of pizza, a tiny plate of dishes, etc. The food might not be able to hold you up for the whole conference, so it would be a great idea to bring some snacks with you. Or at least make sure you eat a big meal before the event.

Item #4 to Bring to a tech conference: Sugar-free mints/gum

You definitely do not want bad breathe when networking with others!

I would definitely look towards getting sugar-free mints/gum since sugar is more likely to give you worse breathe.

If you don’t want to be chewing around and want to freshen your breath very quickly, you can also try Listerine Pocketpaks – which dissolves on your tongue and quickly gets rid of bad breathe.

Item #5 to Bring to a tech conference: A Notebook

I find bringing a notebook very useful. So useful, I’ve created the following list on how you can utilize its useful-ness:

When taking notes, it can make you look engaged with the speaker (versus typing notes on a laptop or phone, which can easily be mistaken for texting or surfing the web).
When networking, you can bring up key topics that the speaker had talked about that you wrote in your notebook.
You can sketch out ideas that you may hear.

Item #6 to Bring to a tech conference: A laptop

Last month, I had attended the Facebook Developer Conference. When looking at the schedule of things to do, I didn’t think that I would need my laptop. However during the keynote, the speakers announced a “surprise” – they will be holding an F8 Dev. Hackathon that started that day. And, of course, you needed a laptop.

I have also attended other Tech Conferences that held workshops where you can learn all sorts of stuff, using your laptop.

So, yeah, bring a laptop if you plan on getting hands-on at the conference.

Item #7 to Bring to a tech conference: Your Phone Charger

This should be pretty self-explanatory. I’ve seen an increase of “charging stages” at conferences as a whole. However, of course these charging stages do not always include phone chargers.

You can always opt on bringing a portable phone charger. One that I really like and tends to charge my iPhone X atleast 3 full times is the Yoobao Dual USB Phone Charger. It contains 10,000 mah, which would last you for some time.