What's in My Conference Bag 💼

In part one of this post, I shared my conference prep and networking toolkit. But here's the thing: conference value often gets lost the week after. You return exhausted, with a phone full of photos and a head full of ideas that slowly fade.

Two things can help. A little hardware — worth its carry-on weight— and a few smart post-event tools. These streamline how I show up — and follow-up.

My Conference Gear

1. The Digital Notebook

reMarkable Paper Pro Move This new digital notebook is like a cross between a Kindle and an iPad. It doesn’t have apps. It doesn’t send notifications. It doesn’t play video or audio. It has a screen designed to feel like you’re writing on paper. It bridges handwritten notes and searchable text.

I often prefer to take live session notes on my laptop, with Granola, as noted in part one. But in some sessions, writing by hand feels less distracting. My notes are searchable later and they’re backed up and accessible on the reMarkable phone app and my laptop.

I like the new templates and workbooks so I don’t always have to start with a blank page. And having digital notes means I avoid adding to the stack of paper notebooks under my desk.

To justify the $450 expense for the well-made Norwegian device you’ll want to use it regularly for several years. For a cheaper reusable option, consider a Rocketbook. The mini is $20 and other— like the Flex Planner— are under $50. Read more about my exploration of paper vs digital notes.

2. Backup Buddy 🎙️

Sony ICD-UX570 Digital Recorder ($98) This fits comfortably in my pocket, with a pop-out USB connector for transferring recordings to my laptop.

* It comes in handy if you’re in a front-row seat, where laptop typing may feel intrusive.

* It beats phone apps that can crash, or a laptop mic that picks up more ambient noise.

* The audio quality, while not as good as a pro device, may be decent enough for a podcast sound bite.

Post-event transcription

* MacWhisper is free for transcribing audio files locally on your laptop.

* NotebookLM also provides fast free transcription, for files up to 200mb.

* Alice enables high-quality, secure transcription for $3 to $10/hour.

* Good Tape, a Danish service created by journalists for journalists, is free for three 30-min transcriptions a month, or ~$15/month billed annually for 20 hours of transcription.

* Escriba is free to try for a week, then $10/month for 6 hours of transcription. Like Good Tape, it works in 90+ languages. Developed by Brazilian fact-checking organization Aos Fatos, all revenue is reinvested in the newsroom.

* Want more options? Check out a recent post on the best transcription tools.

3. The Quiet Saver 🎧

Sony WH-1000XM6 Noise-Cancelling Headphones Find moments of quiet and crystal-clear phone calls even in chaotic convention halls. Yes, like the reMarkable, they cost an eye-watering $450. But my last pair (XM3) lasted 7 years— and still work as a backup. That's about $5/month for daily peace of mind. The new AirPods 3 ($250) look to be a cheaper and more easily portable alternative. I may test them soon.

4. A Lighter Laptop 💻

13-inch MacBook Air After lugging a heavy backpack around for decades, I’m now carrying less. I bought this slender backup so I don’t have to haul my chunky Macbook Pro to and from work. For 95% of what I do, the laptops function equally well.

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II. Post-Conference Processing

4. Reflect on what you’ve learned

The OpenNews After Party Toolkit is a smart guide to conference follow-up. When a pile of work greets you, it’s easy for event takeaways to melt away. That’s why this guide is so useful, with tips to help you:

* Reflect during the flight home

* Write a one-pager for your boss

* Host a brown-bag at work

* Make follow-up handouts

The guide was prepared by Emma Carew Grovum for SRCCON, a gathering of forward-looking journalists.

5. Create Your Conference Brain 🧠

NotebookLM Drop your notes, slides, audio recordings, handouts, photos—into NotebookLM for an AI-powered knowledge base. Query your collection, generate audio summaries for the flight home, or create video overviews for team debriefs. You can now generate custom reports as well, focused on specific topics. The reports include helpful citations, pointing you back to the spot in your notes where something was mentioned. Upload materials daily during the conference to avoid post-event overwhelm. Here’s what I like about NotebookLM.

Create a master notebook: A senior journalist at the Online News Association conference told me she uses NotebookLM to create an uber-conference notebook with notes from all the conferences she attends. That way she can query across multiple events. That’s valuable months later when it’s hard to remember which conference had the panel covering some specific topic of interest. It also helps surface recurring themes.

Author Steven Johnson, who co-founded NotebookLM, does something similar, relying on a notebook that has the text of all his books and major writings.

6. Process Through Conversation 💬

ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode Let AI interview you about conference takeaways. Speaking freely helps process ideas you haven't fully formed yet. Ask for a summary of your own insights to capture thoughts while they're fresh.

You can also chat with Claude, Gemini or Copilot, asking your AI assistant to interview you about the conference and then summarize your responses. You can use a simple prompt “Interview me about the conference I just attended and help me think through what was most notable and what I can follow-up on.” Or draw on these more detailed prompts.

7. Visualize Your Insights 📊

MyLens Transform your summary notes into visual mind maps and infographics. We often remember things better when we visualize them.

Alternatives: ChatGPT’s new image generation engine can create informational graphics as well. Napkin designs detailed infographics (see why I like it), while Gamma works best if you want slides rather than infographics (why Gamma is useful).

ps. Here’s a Wonder Tools Interactive Conference Toolkit Guide, made w/ Claude.