[crazyliblady]

I traveled to a conference out of town recently for work. I had never been to that city. While I did do some research to find out what restaurants were in the area and the costs of food in that area, I still was not quite sure what to expect. I cashed in a lot of my points from surveys I did at Lightspeed Panel, NFO, E-Poll, etc. for either cash or gift cards for places like Starbucks, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Subway. This strategy helped me to save a lot of money on food. Also, because I have food allergies, I took a small amount of food (foil packet of tuna, fruit, trail mix, etc.) with me to the airport. This helps me to avoid the situation at the airport where there is nothing I can eat.

Another thing I learned is that the next time I go to a conference, I want to stay in a hotel either very close to the conference center so I can walk or one on the conference bus line. The metro transit system was great, but I missed out on a lot of great events because I did not want to walk around on the street at night.