I love these tips from a suitcase-packing ninja, aka Heather Poole, a flight attendant from Los Angeles. I’ve been rolling my own (clothes, that is) for a long time, but I like the tip about what to do with dressy items. My problem is that, once I’ve squished in all the necessaries, if there’s an atom of extra space, I stuff in something else. Then another little item, until I end up having to sit on the suitcase anyway. I must have been a squirrel in another life.

Just read this post by Philippa Gamse if you want to know what does and, importantly, what does not work when it comes to online satisfaction surveys (a must-read if you do your post-con surveys via the Web).

What does work is dangling a carrot to give people a reason to keep on slogging, in Philippa’s case, free miles for completing an airline frequent flier program survey. She gives four examples of things that do not work as well, which to me range from 8 to 10+ on a 1 -10 scale of annoyingness. Can I add one? I hate it when, after actually going through the whole thing, I continue to get e-mails reminding me to complete the survey for weeks afterward. C’mon, have a mechanism to take those who did the right thing off the reminder list.

If you’re looking for a fairly comprehensive listing of conferences, conventions, trade shows, and other types of meetings, check out AllConferences.com, which I just learned about today. You can sort by location, type of industry, and even by keyword. This could come in very handy, so I thought I’d pass it along.

It seems so obvious, but I’ve seen it too: Webinar promotions that don’t give you a time zone with the starting time. It’s easy to forget that, unlike a live meeting, not everyone will intuitively understand what zone you’re in when tuning in to a webinar (or audioconference, etc.) that has a national or international audience. More on webinars and time zones from Ken Molay at the Webinar blog.

I just read about this simple but scarily effective hotel scam that I could see myself falling for. From Hotel Chatter:

‘Someone’ calls the front desk and asked for (example) Room 620 (which happens to be your room). Your phone rings in your room. You answer and the person on the other end says the following:

‘This is the front desk. When checking in, we came cross a problem with your charge card information. Please re-read me your credit card number and verify the last 3 digits numbers at the reverse side of your charge card.’

Not thinking anything you might give this person your information, since the call seems to come from the front desk. But actually, it is a scam of someone calling from outside the hotel/front desk.

So if you do get a call like this, go down to the front desk and check it out yourself (or at least hang up, then call the front desk so you know who you’re talking with).

I know you know, but it never hurts to remind people about the importance of proofreading everything connected to your event. Even (or especially) any giveaways, like t-shirts or coffee mugs or pens with your organization’s name on it. Unless you don’t mind being embarrassed the way Eugenio Velez of the San Francisco (or is that San Francicso?) Giants was recently. Ouch.

Thanks to Miriyah for the pointer!

From door locks to in-room safes to guest databases, HotelChatter takes a look at five ways a hotel room’s safety can be compromised, and what you can do about it.

I just read this by Maddie Grant on SocialFish, and think it is brilliant:

How do you herd cats? …You tilt the floor. You point everyone in the right direction, not just through words but through action and through intent.

She’s talking about an association CEO’s role in evolving an organization to be more social, but it could apply to any one of us who, for whatever reason, find ourselves chasing after a bunch of unruly metaphoric kittens these days…

There’s a lot of interest these days in putting on hybrid events, but there’s also a lot of anxiety over how to do it right. So it’s a good thing that Mike McAllen put together this free e-book, which describes what went into producing the EventCamp NYC hybrid meeting earlier this year. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my list.

Thanks to Lara for the pointer to this site: 3floz.com, which offers TSA-sized health and beauty products “for those who travel, those who are curious, and those who can’t commit.”

If I ever run out of the Mary Kay samples my neighbor gave me, I’ll give this site a shot.