Digitize the paper
One of the first things I do is scan every relevant piece of paper that I collected during the conference. This could include handouts, flyers, receipts, and notes. My tool of choice is the ScanSnap s1300i. It’s compact enough I can leave it on my desk, robust enough to chew through 12 double-sided pages per minute, and simultaneously scans both sides. It has been instrumental in my quest for paperless workflows. It’s not cheap, but is a prime example of having the right tool for the job. I am delighted every time I use it.

I like to keep a digital copy to the conference agenda. There, I highlight the sessions I attended and any brief thoughts about the presenters, the presentation, and the research. I have found this is handy and helpful to have as I frequently find myself referring back to it.

Throughout the conference, I take notes in a Leuchtturm 1917, dot-grid journal. While I prefer a digital ecosystem, taking analog notes during a conference seems less intrusive to the discussion. During my post-conference ritual, I read through my notes and look for any reminders, action items, or calendar entries. I process this data and add the items to the appropriate lists or calendars. This is also a good time to synthesize the notes. What themes are emerging? What are my major takeaways for the conference?

Reset to zero
I follow a recommendation I picked up from the KonMari method of decluttering and completely empty out both my suitcase and briefcase. By completely empty, I mean it. I take my briefcase and remove literally very single thing inside of it. Especially after a long trip, things have a way of nesting and getting lost in there. Its helpful to eliminate the clutter that builds up, and to find all those business cards and little scraps of paper that I stuffed in there during the trip.

Conferences are fun because they are like a little bubble from the outside world. I get a little behind on my email and task lists, so the post conference time is especially useful to reset my digital inboxes to zero. I completely process my email inboxes, categorize my action items in Omnifocus, and process any digital media that I saved to my computer’s desktop.

Follow up with new connections
Perhaps the greatest benefit of attending conferences is networking. Making connections with colleagues and forging new friendships. The post conference period is a great time to follow up with these folks and subscribe to their social profiles.

Send thank you notes
Nothing replaces the old timey, handwritten thank you note. It is so rare these days that receiving them is extra special and meaningful. Look for opportunities to make those connections and send a hand written thank you note. Perhaps it was a particularly engaging session and you want to show appreciation, or maybe a session host that did a great job of facilitating a lively discussion.

It doesn’t have to be a thank you card. Perhaps you met a doctoral student who had a very promising research project and you want to encourage him or her. Instead of sending a card, you could print out and mail a journal article you think would be helpful along with a short note of encouragement. Imagine how impactful this could be for an up and coming researcher!

Receipts and expense reports
If you are lucky enough to receive some type of reimbursement for your conference expenses, now is the time to complete the paperwork and submission. Hopefully you have retained the necessary receipts and scanned them as part of the digitization process mentioned above. Even better, sign up for e-receipts from the hotel, rental car, and airline you frequently use.

It looks like a lot in a list like this, but the whole process takes only 20 or 30 minutes. I find it is a great time for reflection about the conference and a way to bring closure to the event.

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The countdown has begun! I’m really looking forward to the Academy of Human Resource Development’s 2018 International Research Conference in the Americas. This will be my second AHRD conference and my first time as a presenter. Two colleagues and I will be presenting a poster titled, Hypotheses in Human Resource Development: Problems and Solutions. I’m thankful that the conference will be held in my backyard this year: Richmond, VA.

I’ll be Tweeting #AHRD2018 during the conference. You can follow me @TEKramer.

If you are going to the AHRD conference, I would love to meet you! You can get in touch with me here.

With some relief, you remember that you had taken an hour out of your busy schedule to set up a comprehensive digital backup strategy just last week. You’re still mad about the expense in replacing your gear, but at least you have your files.

There are 1,001 things that can go wrong and make you wish you had a backup of your data. This article is designed to give you the framework to implement a comprehensive digital backup strategy. Following this guide will minimize the disruption and panic from losing your data, regardless of the reason.

This guide is largely based on Katie Floyd’s Creating a Comprehensive Backup Strategy. Katie is a co-host of the very useful Mac Power Users podcast.

The Four Rules:

1. Automated
Despite your best intentions, you will forget to back up your data. Reminders to backup always pop up at the worst time, and you will be tempted to just dismiss the reminder without taking the time to plug in your device and go through the trouble of manually syncing your data. Your backups (yes, backups. See point #2) need to be automated. They need to occur in the background without your input.

2. Redundant
One backup is no backup. Consider someone with an external hard drive that is synced every night. What if there is a fire, flood, or theft where both the computer and hard drive are stolen? I recommend an absolute minimum of 2 backups.

3. Off Site
One of your backups needs to be offsite. With advances in internet speeds and improvements to online backup services, this has become a preferred alternative to physically locating a hard drive in a different geographical location. Personally, I use and recommend Backblaze. (This is an affiliate link. If you click it and make a purchase, you and I will each receive a 1 month extension to the Backblaze subscription.) It will run you around $50 a year for unlimited storage for one computer. The peace of mind is well worth the expense. Backblaze has saved my bacon more than enough times to justify the annual cost.

I do not consider services like Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive to be valid offsite backups, for a couple reasons. These cloud services are best suited for syncing data, not storage and redundancy. They specifically do not backup your computer, but sync the files you have specifically selected.

4. Verified
Backups are prone to failure as well. Be sure you are able to access, download, and restore your backups. I recommend doing this twice a year at the same time I change the batteries in my smoke detectors.

Objections

I use Dropbox (Or Google Drive, or iCloud)
Cloud sync services are fantastic, and I am a big fan. However, these services are not designed to back up your entire computer. They only “back up” the files and folders that you manually select. If your computer is stolen or damaged beyond repair, you will lose data. All of the data that you did not sync with your service of choice.

I back up my files with a thumb drive or external hard drive
This violates rules 1 and 2. If you work from a laptop, you need to remember to plug in your external hard drive or thumb drive. That means your backup is not continuous. You also likely store your backup in very close proximity to your computer, so any natural disaster or theft could result in a single point of failure.

I email important files to myself
Oh, wow. Please don’t do that. You are cluttering up your email service with huge files. You will forget to email yourself an important file at some point. This is just not an efficient, reliable method of backing up your computer.

If you do nothing else

If this all seems to complicated or you just refuse to take the time to put it all together, at least do one thing. Sign up for an automated cloud backup service. I use and recommend Backblaze, but there are several options to choose from. Some alternatives include Drive and Carbonite. These services will automatically and continuously back up your computer to the cloud. While this violates rule number 1, it is a backup, and it is offsite. It is also the cheapest upfront cost since you need only sign up for a service, rather than shell out the expense of an external hard drive or NAS.

My Backup Strategy

I work primarily from a 13” MacBook Pro laptop. This is synced via Apple’s Time Machine to a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, (similar to an external hard drive). I run Backblaze, so as long as my computer is connected to the internet, it is automatically and continuously backed up.