This Saturday I will be presenting at the University of Akron’s iPad Symposium. As I’ve attended numerous conferences throughout my professional career, I’ve started to realize I should create a to do list so I don’t forget anything before a conference.

1. Charge my devices and battery packs

My usual compliment of devices I take to a conference consists of my laptop, iPad, and iPhone. Along with charging them, I also have a battery case for my iPhone and a Jackery Giant USB battery pack that needs to be charged. Multi-day conferences are not a problem.

2. Set up IFTTT to capture my notes and tweets

I’ve started to use Twitter to write my notes during a conference and If This Then That to capture them. The recipe I use looks for any of my tweets with the conference hashtag, and if found, it appends that tweet to a text file in Dropbox. At the end of the conference I’ll have an entire text file with everything I want to save from the conference.

3. Set up a keyboard shortcut for the conference hashtag

The hashtag for the conference Saturday is #iPadSymposiumUA. What I did on my iPhone and iPad is create a keyboard shortcut (Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts). The shortcut is iii which expands to #iPadSymposiumUA.

4. Charge my name tag

The name tag I’ve started to use is a 4 generation iPod Touch running Keynote. I have a lanyard that connects to the dock connector, and I created a 3 slide presentation that continually loops. Keynote keeps the display on while showing a presentation. If I shut it off during sessions, the battery lasts an entire day.

5. Gas up the car, get some cash and Ho Hos

Oh, how frustrating it can be to get in your car for a multi-hour trip and realize you have to stop for gas. Even though I hardly use cash anymore, it’s a good idea to have a few bucks on you, just in case. The Ho Hos? They’re self explanatory.