Blog World Week continues on Road Warriorette! I had such a fabulous time, despite the somewhat rocky start. One of the highlights was going out to dinner with the Boarding Area crew on Friday night, where I got to meet the famous Randy Petersen, AadvantageGeek, Deals We Like, Frequently Flying, Loyalty Traveler, Mommy Points, Wandering Aramean, Flight Diversions, and Points Miles & Martinis.
One of the things I was super anxious about in preparation for Blog World was what to wear. Kind of ironic, right? A woman who writes a blog about what to wear during business travel is freaked about what outfits to take to a business conference? That’s the thing though—it wasn’t a business conference for work. I can tell you how to dress for those all day! (Comfortable, professional, shoes you can walk in.) Surely bloggers must be more casual! I thought. Are they going to look at me funny if I show up in my business casual slacks and cardigan?
After consulting the wise and brilliant Kat from Corporette, I settled on a basic strategy. Now, this may surprise you: comfortable, professional, and with shoes I can walk in. We also figured I could go a little more casual than I would for a normal work conference, especially because one of the days was a Saturday. I ended up wearing a dress with a cardigan for the first day, but slacks and a cute top would have been perfectly fine. Jeans were fine for Saturday, but I made sure that what I wore on top could also be worn with slacks, to keep it looking put together. Flats are great for conferences, because the locations are often so large you have to walk forever to go between the sessions.
Here’s what I decided on:
- Outfit 1 (Friday): Boden Everyday Jersey dress, brown cardigan, tights, and flats.
- Outfit 2 (Saturday): Jeans, teal tunic length top, chartreuse cardigan, flats
I brought a top appropriate for going out for dinner on Friday night and a comfortable top for travel, and I was done! I knew I had worn the right things when I met Mommy Points on Friday morning and she had on almost the same outfit I did—Boden dress, cardigan, boots. I must say, she has excellent taste!
Conference Packing List (generic):
- Outfit for each conference day (dress, slacks/jeans and top, etc)
- Comfortable but professional travel clothes
- PJs
- Workout clothes (will you have a chance to use them? Probably not. But bring them just in case)
- Toiletries, makeup
- Jewelry
Road Warriorette Blog World Packing List:
- Boden dress
- Jeans
- Brown cardigan
- Chartreuse cardigan
- Teal tunic top
- Black camisole (going out top)
- Turquoise Three Dots tee for travel
- Pink flats
- Brown flats
- Brown textured tights
- Pjs
- Yoga pants
- Jewelry
- Toiletries, makeup, curling iron
Phew! That about does it.
Readers, what is your favorite conference outfit?
I’m even more minimalist when packing for this sort of event, though as a guy I probably have it easier.
The jeans I’m wearing on the plane and pack a few short sleeve shirts.
The longer trips mean a second pair of jeans and, depending on just how long the trip, either more shirts or I do laundry along the way. I did 10 days this past trip in just a backpack. It was great not worrying about overhead space or anything else baggage-related.
Ha ha – apparently it was the conference uniform for the day! 🙂
Seriously though, I aboslutely love Boden dresses for travel to things like this. The pack and/or travel so well. Just remember to go through a shopping portal like Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards, MileagePlus Shopping, etc… when you buy the (not so cheap) Boden dresses so that you earn lots of bonus miles and points for a purchase you were going to make anyway!
BTW, your outfits at the conference were adorable. Good job.
My list would look VERY similar to yours.. except I’d probably unnecessarily add in about two extra “going out” dresses. Its my folly in packing land!
I had a hard time packing for LA because of the weather this time of year. It’s just as likely to be 85 and sunny as it is to be 65 and overcast.
So I brought both long sleeve and short sleeve shirts. The one thing I didn’t bring was an umbrella. It never rains in LA, right? 😉