Your road warrior hive mind: deployed 🎯
Hey Reader, your event bestie here 👋
A few weeks ago I posted a photo of two pairs of feet wearing nipple covers as blister bandaids. (Yes, you read that right. Yes, I wore them. Yes, they worked.) Then I asked you for YOUR best travel hacks.
The comments section detonated.
Hundreds of replies. Quiet wisdom from people who have done 20 cities in 12 weeks. Niche genius from event ops folks who have stood at booths long enough to invent solutions that frankly should be patented. There are so many road warriors out there, and we need to share our hacks more often, because they are SO helpful.
So this month, we are doing something different. No single product deep dive. No 10-category scorecard. Just the smartest hacks from the smartest people in our world, with my unfiltered take you didn’t ask for.
Grab your hotel coffee. Settle in. Forward this issue to the colleague who keeps showing up to the show floor in the wrong shoes.
🏆 MY TOP 3 HACKS
If you read NOTHING else, read these. The three hacks that genuinely changed how I travel.
1. The Compact Travel Power Strip
I will die on this hill. A compact power strip is the single most-used item in my carry-on. I plug it in on planes when the outlet is cursed and won’t hold my charger. I plug it in at hotels where the only outlet is hidden behind the bed at floor level like a dare. I plug it in at conferences where every attendee is fighting for the same wall socket.
If you only buy one thing this year for work travel, buy this. Find one on Amazon →
2. The Duplicate Toiletry Bag You Never Unpack
From Larna Jackson, MD & Founder, Elevating Event Registration + Onsite Experience.
Larna’s hack is the move that separates the amateurs from the people who travel 30+ weeks a year: keep a complete duplicate set of toiletries permanently packed, never unpacked, restocked after each trip. Two of everything. Done.
I have done this for years, and it has made packing a breeze. My pre-trip stress dropped by approximately 47%. Hanging toiletry bags on Amazon →
3. Nipple Covers as Blister Bandaids
This is the hack that started this whole edition. Yes, the photo at the top of the LinkedIn post. Yes, those are nipple covers stuck to our feet. Yes, they worked better than any blister bandaid I have ever tried.
Sticky. Conformable. Reusable. Painless to remove. The one item in my onsite kit I will never travel without. Sometimes the best gear is gear that was invented for something else entirely. nipple covers on Amazon →
✈️ Airport + Flight Game
The hacks for the part of the trip that breaks most people.
🛂 Go through security at the international terminal.
🥨 Take the food when it is offered.
👃 Burt’s Bees chapstick under the nose for stinky seatmates.
Burt’s Bees peppermint on Amazon →
*also helps in dry climates to prevent nose bleeds. just be sure to label your nose stick from your lip stick*
🧳 Packing + Bag Strategy
The hacks that turn your bag into a precision instrument instead of a chaos pile.
💍 Cheap pill containers for earrings.
💼 Pill sorter for jewelry by day + CPAP bag for chargers.
*now that I think about it, they never check those CPAP bags that there is a CPAP in it, so….anyone have an extra bag around, asking for a friend*
📦 Packing cubes BY DAY, not by item.
👗 Use the hotel hair iron for clothing creases.
*done this, it’s clutch*
🏨 Hotel + On-Site Survival
The hacks that keep you sane between checkin and the keynote.
📝 Mini post-its for the peephole and your “remember me” list.
🪟 The pants hanger from the hotel closet for the curtains.
🛒 Instacart delivery to your hotel room.
📺 Hotel room TV at the booth. Chairs on stage. (We didn’t see anything.)
🧴 Body, Wellness + Sanity
The hacks for keeping the meat suit functional through Day 4 of a trade show.
*Important note: I am not a doctor and this newsletter is absolutely not medical advice. Please do not raid your friend’s medicine cabinet on my account. Talk to an actual physician before doing anything wild on a trade show floor.*
🩹 Yunnan Baiyao capsules for cuts.
🦶 Peppermint foot spray.
Peppermint foot spray on Amazon →
💊 Xanax as antihistamine in a pinch.
*Important note: I am not a doctor and this newsletter is absolutely not medical advice. Please do not raid your friend’s medicine cabinet on my account. Talk to an actual physician about your actual allergies before doing anything wild on a trade show floor.*
✨ The Verdict: These Are The Real Ones
Here is what crowdsourcing this edition revealed about us:
We are RESOURCEFUL. We are slightly chaotic. We are running multimillion-dollar productions on Tic Tacs, hotel hair irons, and a duplicate toiletry bag we never unpack. We invent solutions on the show floor at 6am because the AV truck didn’t show. We share our hacks freely because we know what it feels like to be 30,000 steps in with bleeding feet and no plan.
This is the smartest comments section on LinkedIn. And we are blessed to share all this genius with you.
Forward this issue to the colleague who is about to do their first big trade show. They need this list more than they need another welcome packet.
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Reviewed and Upcoming
Want behind-the-scenes content, real-time testing updates, and more chaos between newsletter issues?
I share live updates from events, quick product takes, the kind of content that doesn’t always make it into the monthly newsletter.
Check out the Testing Lab to see all reviewed items and their scores, the list of products up for review, and submit products you want to see next.
JUST FOR FUN
what i’m watching: Your Friends and Neighbors and Summer House. Also can we please talk about Scamanda?? Reply and tell me your thoughts. 🧐
what i’m reading: What’s the Point? by Tom Rath
where i’m headed: Coming up on a packed run this month, and ALL of these are FREE events. I want to meet my fellow road warriors. I hope you join me at:
📍 Chicago + NYC for Sessionboard’s Content Lab. Come hang. Register here →
📍 IMEX Frankfurt. If you are going, find me.
📍 ECA Legislative Action Day in DC. We are showing up for our industry. Register here →
tiny existential question: Building and learning AI while it’s changing so fast and also doing literally everything else on my plate is A LOT. How are the rest of you keeping up? Do we sleep? Do we delegate? Do we cry in the airport bathroom? Reply and tell me your survival strategy, because I am desperate for them.
hit reply and tell me: What should I crowdsource next? What have you always wanted to know? The next viral LinkedIn post is in your hands. ✍️
catch up with Event About It Podcast: Why “Great Exposure” Is the Biggest Lie in Events