10) Bring your OWN swag. Nothing makes you more popular then handing out products.  Its’ good for you, its’ good for the company you represent. You attract crowds that come to you, you look cool for having companies use you to pimp their stuff, and people remember you. (I got the most swag from Petite Elefant, thanks for the candles, tshirts, baby clothes, keychain clip….companies know your cool and they are right. Kiss!)

9) People tend to hang out with the same people they click with early on, so breaking in can be hard after a day or two in. Do a good job going around and just introducing yourself the first day, being a part of everyone and everything, because eventually, the groups will break off and you may lose your one on one chance to truly infiltrate.

Caroline from DooDahDiva

8 ) Bring your own power strip or extra battery back up for your laptop.  Hell, bring an internet card so you don’t have  to pay an extra $12 to get access in a $190 a night hotel. When you are at a convention where 98% of the people are using their laptops, there are not enough electric plugs to power up. Be prepared or perish!

7) Know that what you do online is permanent; that goes for your blog, twitter, facebook, myspace…all of it. Meaning that if you shared about your fat butt in jeans, someone saw it and will bring it up. If you dance on the computer, someone will have seen it. If you talked smack on twitter, someone knows. Make sure you are comfortable with everything you talk about online being talked about to your face. It’s so easy to hide behind a computer, but conventions are real life. And remember, its not just bloggers reading and talking to you, its PR firms, company reps, the big guys, the little guys, everyone. I am perfectly comfortable with everything I write, but the standard most people use is “would you be OK with it on the NY Times?”. If so, your good, if not, don’t post or tweet it.

6) You will love people (and cats) that you never knew existed, you will have nothing in common with people you thought you did, and you will find that you are more alike with those you were sure you were not.

Janice (5 Minutes for Mom)

5) There is no such thing as too many shoes. Heels look great but feel terrible after an eight hour day and then a 3 hour party. To get up the next day and put them back on is about impossible and will make you cry. Bring tennis shoes, flats, sandals, and heels. Your feet will thank you for the options. Similarly, no one cares what you wear by the 3rd day. Or, atleast, you wont care what you wear. Bring a nice pair of jeans and a comfortable shirt. Oh, and a button up sweater for cold convention rooms. You may be sitting on the floor in the front or the back charging your laptop and dresses and skirts are not good for that. People are there to network and they care what you have to SAY and how you can collaborate, not what you are wearing (unless of course your all sponsored up on your wardrobe and then by all means, throw around your labels).

4) Random advice: If you invite a stranger to share a room with you, know that they may snore so loud that NOTHING wakes them up. The bathroom on a nonconvention floor will have NO line in the bathroom, where the line will be out the door on the other one. Even if a blogger acts all big and bad and drops the F bomb a lot, they can still be a hugger. If you are not in the room with your butt in a seat on time, you will miss your name being pulled out of the prize box and someone else will win your prize. Sometimes the best women speakers, are actually men.

3) There are 5001 ways to bring a business card. Think outside the box. Or rather, bring a box with a fab piece of chocolate wrapped up inside and slap your business card on it (thanks a flash in the pan, best chocolate I ever had). Write your URL on a tampon and pass it out. Put it on a sticker, tattoo, shirt, or button. Also, bring a LOT of advertisements for your site/business. You will hand out double business cards then you planned for. Its better to be over prepared then run out.

2) You will be star struck. You will find your idols and talk them to death (sorry, Maria). Today, I was sitting next to Laura from Kirtsy at the Yanni screening and told her I felt like I was sitting next to Dooce, minus the whole bitchy/Prozac thing. At the same time, you will find that those that you look up to and want to be like are just like you. It will give you hope and inspire you to keep going.

1) You will dread getting up and having an 8 hour class and a 3 hour dinner, and you may even try to talk yourself out of a dinner or bar crawl (lets keep it real, you’re used to being at home in your jogging pants with your kids, it’s like a whole lifestyle change in minimal time, thank you caroline for making encouraging me to go), but you will be sad when the conference closes and already be picking out who has the privilege of sponsoring you to the next one.

Thank You Mom2Summit for taking my convention virginity. I’m coming LOUD and PROUD to BlogHer.

Be skeered Lisa, be very skeered.

~Trisha