Have you ever noticed that when you’re working against a tough deadline, planning a big event, or tackling a challenging assignment, your brain sometimes shuts down out of sheer overwhelm? It’s not your imagination—it’s fear rearing its risk-averse head. Here’s what you need to know to turn off the fear and get back to work.

A team of neuroscientists at Emory University conducted a brain study where they placed subjects in an MRI scanner and hooked them up to electrodes that gave them a shock—not harmful, but definitely not pleasant. When the scientists monitored the subjects’ brain activity, they discovered that not only did they show intense activity in the pain-processing areas of the brain before they received the shock, but that when our brains’ fear systems are actively engaged, other areas including risk-taking and exploration are turned off.

What does that mean for you? That just when you need your powers of creativity and innovation the most, they’re unavailable to you. But here are some things you can do to shift out of fear gear and into innovation mode:

  • Step away from the media. If all the negative reports freak you out, try a news diet. Give up TV newscasts, newspaper and online news sites for a week. If that’s too much of a stretch for you, at least limit your daily intake for a while. You’ll pick up enough news from friends and co-workers, if not social media, to keep up with major events.
  • Listen to music that you love. It doesn’t matter if it’s rock, jazz, classical or Gregorian chant as long as it soothes, comforts, relaxes or inspires you. If switching to music helps you shut out talk radio or TV, so much the better. If you can, leave your music on in the background while you work. Even if you’re barely aware of it, there’s something truly magical about melody.
  • Find some type of daily practice to set a positive tone for your day. It should be something enlightening and energizing. It could include reading, meditation, exercise or gardening. Whatever puts a spring in your step and helps you take the ordinary challenges of work and life in stride. That way, when things get tough (as they inevitably will), you’ll have a practice in place that can help you keep your cool when you need it most.

Libby Gill is a Smart Meeting speaker, executive coach and the author of The Hope-Driven Leader.

Distractions—a constant in the workplace, a thorn in a boss’ side, the enemy of the common employee. While a few workers may be able to power through for eight hours, with only a short lunch break and a phone in their bag all day, distractions are inevitable.

A text comes in. You check social media. Your G-chat is beeping. While many claim to jump from task to task without distractions affecting work, it’s very difficult.

But what if distractions weren’t the end of the world? In fact, what if certain “distractions” could actually help you? Productive procrastination may speed up your work flow, spur creative ideas and increase your productivity. These eight tips may just be the push you need to be your best self at work.

1. Take breaks in spurts.

Working for eight hours straight isn’t realistic, most of the time. So, take a walk around the building or respond to your personal texts. If your employer permits, choose a time frame—for example, after every 40 minutes you work, take a five-minute break. It’s like a refresh for your brain.

2. Talk to co-workers.

Obviously, don’t distract those who are in the middle of a project. But having a brief conversation with colleagues is a minute or two of face-time, rather than screen-time. And talking with co-workers about what you’re working on can fuel collaboration.

3. Listen to an upbeat song.

Pump yourself up before starting on the second portion of your project. Studies show that listening to music can increase productivity. Just make sure it’s not something that will pull you away—if you tend to slow down when listening to music with lyrics, choose an instrumental version of the song instead.

4. Grab a cup of coffee.

The caffeine will spike your adrenaline levels, increasing your ability to crank out event proposals in a shorter amount of time and keeping you awake to power through early-morning meetings.

5. Eat lunch away from your desk.

Lunch is a sacred time, and while your colleagues may believe they’ll get more done while eating lunch at their computers, it will only take away a break for the brain. Sit away from your computer and take your time eating your sandwich, then come back ready to tackle the next item on your to-do list.

6. Break up big tasks.

While many say to start with the most important task and see it through to the end, sometimes it’s nice to divide it into a set of smaller tasks. Powering through may be admirable, but it’s not always practical. Make a short phone call in between post-event reports to feel a sense of accomplishment.

7. Write down your distractions.

Every time a new distraction pops into your brain—be it a chore you need to do or a friend you need to call back—write it down somewhere. Acknowledge the distraction, dedicate 20 seconds to focus on it, then let it go until you can deal with it.

8. Make a list.

Prioritize which projects, both big and small, need to be tackled that day, and which ones can be held off until later. Then, estimate how much time those later tasks will take. If you finish your must-do-today list, continue on to your must-do-tomorrow list. Work for the allotted amount of time, then move on to the next one. The next day, you’ll feel relief seeing you’ve already started on each one.

business-intelligence-concept-big-data-analytics ROI

A recent Harvard Business Review study found the vast majority of companies (90 percent) prioritize events. For more than half of them, in fact, events are the most valuable marketing channel.

Despite the enthusiasm, companies may be missing out on the competitive advantage events offer, warned the report, titled “The Event Marketing Evolution: An Era of Data, Technology, and Revenue Impact.”

The reason? Fewer than one in four (23 percent) of the 700 senior executives surveyed said they can accurately measure the return on investment. Their support for event marketing is “largely intuitive, based more on anecdotal evidence than on hard data,” the executive summary said.

Missed Opportunity

CMOs earmark 24 percent of their annual budget to live events, so not understanding ROI is a major missed opportunity.

With no clear line of sight into event activity, companies focus on the top of the sales funnel. They use basic metrics like number of attendees, leads generated and social media mentions. But they miss the bigger picture, being unable to connect the dots and tie events to revenue and profit.

The good news is the latest ROI technology provides powerful tools to measure event impact based on the data. Here’s how you can leverage these solutions to improve business outcomes for your company, exhibitors and attendees.

Personalized Experience

Engagement tools like smart tags and mobile event apps generate a goldmine of data. Using real-time analytics platforms, planners can passively track activity and gain a clear picture of event performance in real time. For example, session and traffic metrics provide clues on attendees’ interests based on where they spend their time in sessions and on the show floor. Armed with these insights, organizers can send push notifications, recommend relevant sessions and exhibitor booths or suggest other attendees to meet based on shared interests, profiles and availability. The result is more personalized, VIP experiences.

Better Events, Proven ROI

Here are six ways you can use advanced event tech to improve your meetings and event outcomes.

  1. ROI technology provides real-time feedback via spot surveys, heat maps and dwell times. Why wait for post-event reports to learn about problems? Tap into the data and make adjustments that enhance outcomes on-the-spot.
  2. Popular event metrics include attendance, number of tickets sold and amount of direct revenue generated. While financial returns are vital, it’s important to choose both qualitative and quantitative success metrics.
  3. Recent advances open new doors to measure event value in innovative ways tied to demand generation. For example, set metrics to see if attendees are: increasing their knowledge about your brand, finding solutions to their business problems, networking effectively and creating new opportunities. You’ll gain valuable insights on how your event impacts attendees’ brand perceptions and likelihood to buy.
  4. Events should be part of an overarching marketing plan. Savvy companies use data gleaned from events to improve other pieces of their sales and marketing programs. Then, they conduct customized outreach that converts more prospects and keeps customers engaged year-round.
  5. With data from smart tags, marketers can now sync their event activity data to their CRM (customer relationship management) and marketing automation systems. This is critical for marketing attribution. At last companies get a clear view—based on hard data—of the role events play in driving revenue.
  6. ROI technology raises the bar on reporting. Create data-driven reports for C-level executives, sponsors and stakeholders in mere minutes. And provide a comprehensive picture of event success that shows your team is moving the needle for your company.

Brian Friedman is Vice President of Digital Innovation at Aventri. Smart Meetings partnered with Aventri to write “Event Technology Trends: The Significant Seven,” a resource on ROI technology and other innovations that are transforming meetings and events. You can download a copy of the report here.

5 Ways to Build a More Respectful and Harassment-Free Workplace Culture

The #MeToo movement is impelling organizations to rethink and revamp their approach to preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. Left unchecked, incidents of sexual harassment—and all forms of harassment and discrimination—undermine workplace culture, and can negatively affect recruitment and retention, company reputation and the bottom line.

Given that professionals in the meetings and events industry can spend almost as much time at on-site locations as they do in the office, it’s never been more important to ensure that employees understand their responsibility to prevent sexual harassment.

Related: New AWE Team Advocates for Gender Equality

Here are five ways that you can help your organization build a more respectful, harassment-free workplace culture:

1. Set a strong tone from the top.

Employees look to their CEO and senior executives to lead by example, so it’s critical that leaders reflect their personal commitment to a harassment-free environment in their behavior and interactions.

2. Develop an anti-harassment policy.

Creating a written anti-harassment policy is an important way to communicate to employees that harassment and discrimination is unacceptable and illegal. The policy should make it clear that rules apply to everyone and everywhere—whether individuals are in the office or in a convention center, conference hall or hotel ballroom. It’s also a good idea to include the anti-harassment policy in your organization’s written code of conduct and employee handbook.

3. Implement an internal complaint process.

Too often incidents of harassment go unreported, which can perpetuate a toxic environment and lead to lower morale and productivity, employee health issues and other negative consequences. Implementing a formal complaint process for employees to report sexual harassment and other misconduct is another important way to demonstrate a strong commitment to a harassment-free workplace. Reporting complaints—whether through a hotline, dedicated email or designated manager—should be easy and convenient for employees.

4. Conduct regular, interactive training.

Making sexual harassment prevention training a priority and requiring that all employees participate on a regular basis is another key way to reduce the risk of workplace harassment and foster a positive culture. New York State, New York City and California are among the states and municipalities that recently passed laws requiring employers to train all employees annually on sexual harassment prevention. When training is interactive and relevant to your employees and industry, it can be a powerful tool for raising awareness of what harassment is and the various forms it can take. And rather than focus on laws and legal jargon, sexual harassment training should motivate positive behaviors and attitudes.

5. Promote diversity and inclusion.

Promoting diversity and inclusion has become increasing important in preventing harassment and discrimination. A lack of diversity and inclusion is one of the top risk factors for workplace harassment, according to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s task force on workplace harassment. However, welcoming people with different backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, genders, ages and abilities is not enough. For diverse environments to be successful, there must also be inclusion—including individuals from diverse backgrounds in your organization’s operations and leadership.

As part of a holistic approach to preventing workplace harassment and discrimination, these five ways can help the meetings and events industry become a leader in addressing this pervasive problem, and educating employees on what they can do to create a respectful, harassment-free culture where everyone feels they belong.

Jeffrey Frankel is the Vice President of Marketing for Traliant. The company is transforming diversity training from boring to brilliant. Traliant creates online, interactive training experiences that motivate employees to act ethically, to speak up and prevent harassment and discrimination and help promote positive, respectful workplaces.

poaching

The event planning industry has a poaching problem. Although in recent years incidents of hoteliers luring event participants outside the room block have decreased, a majority of event professionals still say they have been victimized. Fortunately, some preventative methods can be taken. But first, let’s define the challenge as explained by Events Industry Council.

What is Poaching?

Room block poaching is the act of stealing event participants from official room blocks. Using various methods, businesses seek out attendees and exhibitors to recruit or pull them away from official negotiated hotel blocks.

There are a multitude of ways poachers do this:

  • Selling fictitious reservations/card fraud: With this, event participants are led to believe by a third-party organization they have made a reservation, when in fact they haven’t. Participants are left with no room reservation, but their card may have still been charged.
  • Misrepresentation: Poachers misrepresent themselves to sell bookings outside of the official hotel block. Two common ways they do this is by “bait and switch,” in which they falsely advertise a room that is better than what is being sold, or they say the official hotel block is sold out.
  • Trademark infringement: Poachers will use the logo of an event owner to look like an official business. Trademarks registered with a governmental trademark entity have an easier time pursuing trademark infringement.
  • Unauthorized access, use and selling of data: A poacher may obtain attendee information by unauthorized use of a website or database, or they may purchase data from an unauthorized seller.
  • Obtaining inventory through omission: Without disclosing their intent, poachers may obtain room inventory from hotels or hotel’s wholesalers.

How This Affects Planners and Attendees

When poaching occurs, event planners not only take a financial hit, but their reputation may also be negatively affected. In addition to incurred legal fees, planners will also have to face dissatisfied attendees and could have trouble meeting their minimums. If poaching results in inaccurate room block history, planners will find it more difficult to negotiate room blocks in the future.

Related: 6 Steps to Protect Your Social Media Data

Poaching has negative consequences for the host hotels as well. Much like planners, their reputation is also at stake. Hotels may have limited space, and when an attendee arrives to learn they don’t have a reservation, this looks bad on the hotel, even if the hotel is not at fault.

What You Can Do

In 2014, the Convention Industry Council conducted a survey of 622 event professionals, and found that 73.1 percent of respondents had events targeted by poaching. In 2018, this number dropped to 63 percent—still a huge problem.

Here are ways to prevent it:

Communicate/Inform

  • Include an alert about the official room block and potential poaching risks in the registration process.
  • Provide information to attendees and exhibitors on the event website clearly listing official vendors and logos, as well as potential personal risks.
  • Conduct a pre-arrival audit of reservations. Notify attendees that haven’t booked in the official room block of possible poaching.

Limit Access

  • Remove or restrict access to lists of past, present and potential attendees and exhibitors.
  • Request permission to access attendee data and limit information included on any published lists.
  • Make copying logos more difficult by disabling the right-click copying function or slicing it into several fragments.

Seeding and Salting

  • Use seeding and salting practices to alert planners of possible poaching and identify leaks. Seeding adds names to lists that are monitored for unauthorized use. If multiple lists are distributed, salting adds unique names to each to trace which has been compromised.

leaders

Leadership is an action, not a position. When done right, leadership development transforms individuals, teams, organizations and society.

Successful habits are key to great leadership whether coaching a team, managing a startup or moving up the ranks of a Fortune 500 company. Leadership expert Lisa Skeete Tatum shares four ways that set successful leaders apart in an era dominated by change and disruption.

1. Priority Sequencing. I don’t like the term work/life balance because I don’t believe “balance” is achievable—I focus on priority sequencing and remembering what is truly important. I make sure I schedule family time and events into my calendar, giving them the same importance as business meetings. There are 10,080 minutes in a day, and we should take at least five minutes for ourselves. Take time each day to invest in yourself, whether it’s a having a morning ritual of meditation, providing yourself with space to think, capturing your accomplishments or reading something to expand your knowledge and perspective.

2. Cultivate a personal board of directors. Your network is one of the most important assets you have. Moreover, the workplace at times can be a bit isolating. Develop a strong personal board of advisors—a personal dream team in your corner. A strong personal board of directors should have six types of members—a mentor, sponsor, connector, point expert, close friend and an executive coach.

3. Win first. Commit to your goal and then figure out how to make it happen. So many of us start with a logical approach to meet our objectives and as a result, we cap our potential because we are guided by what we think is probable in terms of a successful outcome. Get illogical and don’t impose boundaries on your possibilities.

More: 5 Tips for Negotiating Your Best Salary

4. Negotiate. It’s imperative that we advocate for ourselves. We have to know our worth and make requests. The consequences go beyond leaving significant money on the table. First, it is often difficult to close the salary gap once you have fallen behind. Second, we must be able to ask not only for salary, but also for additional opportunities and/or promotions. Besides possibly not sufficiently advocating for yourself, not negotiating on your own behalf may lead to questions about your ability to manage, especially as you move up in your organization.

Lisa Skeete Tatum is co-founder and CEO of Landit, a technology platform created to increase the success and engagement of women in the workplace. The platform offers a turn-key “one size fits one” solution that enables companies to attract, develop and retain high-potential diverse talent.

Tatum will present “Why Everyone Needs a Personal Board of Directors” in the Leadership Studio at 2019 PCMA Convening Leaders, a four-day educational event Jan. 6–9 in which the business events industry learns how to create meaningful and engaging events.

While email is a vital aspect of business communication, getting your clients to open and read through it can be challenging. No matter how well-designed your marketing emails look, if they lack clear and concise content, it is probably going to make its way into the trash or spam folder. A well-written, plain-text email can perform just as well as a highly designed email.

As an event professional, you are probably sending a lot of emails. Here are some tips to help you write a great marketing email.

Be Personal

Before you start, imagine you were sending the email to just one person or a good friend. Make sure to address your reader by their first name rather than “Greetings,” “Hello,” “Hey There” or “Sir/Madam.” This assures the reader that he or she is not part of a large email group. Remember, each client means business, so take a few extra minutes to write in a language that is friendly, conversational and connects well with the reader. Always direct your email to the reader and not the brand you are writing for. Use pronouns such as “you,” “your” and “yours” rather than “I” and “we.”

Write for the Web

Don’t forget that email is part of the web. Write short and crisp sentences and try not to sound too formal, redundant or robotic. Follow a simple structure and write short paragraphs. Use subheadings, bold text or bullets to highlight important information and make your copy scannable. Write assuming the client is not going to read every single word.

Write a Great Subject Line

Once an email makes its way to a reader’s inbox, the subject line is the first thing that meets the eye. Don’t rush into writing your subject line. We suggest you write it after you have drafted the entire email, as it helps to reflect the text in the body, or you can write it first and get the text to reflect your subject line. Try to restrict your subject line to a maximum of 30 characters.

More: 7 Ways to Increase Your Open Rate with Intriguing Subject Lines

Give Importance to Preview Text

The next thing that attracts the eye is the preview text, and it is just as important as the subject line. It is the first few words of the first sentence in your email and gives a quick peek into the content inside. This can also help your reader identify if the email is spam or not. Start with a killer opening line.

Body

According to a recent study by Microsoft, the attention span for an average human being is only eight seconds. This is all the time you have to engage your reader and convince them to read further. When you write the body of your email, ask yourself three questions:

  • What is your goal?
  • How does it benefit the reader?
  • Is your content easy to read?

You probably have a lot of information you would like to include, but you have to be picky. Would you read chunks of text in an email? Probably not! First, establish a goal and make sure content reaches that goal. Your text needs to be short, easy to read and beneficial to your reader. Maintain clear formatting as it can help your text be scannable and still provide all the essential information your reader needs.

Urge Action

Your email should motivate your reader to act once they have read through it. Instill the urge to click by using actionable language such as: “sign up,” “order,” “reserve,” “buy,” “start,” or “get.” If you are offering an incentive, include words such as “free” or “complementary.” Place the call to action (CTA) preferably after the first few lines of your text so your reader knows exactly what to do.

Avoid Attachments

Resist the need to include attachments in your marketing emails. If you feel an attachment covers essential information, consider adding it as text within the body. Readers don’t trust attachments as they may contain viruses, and if your reader is viewing the email on a smartphone, then it might not translate well.

Read and Re-read

Read, read and read is the name of the game. Ensure your copy is error-free before you send. Mistakes reflect poorly on the business. Make sure you got the client’s name right, do a spell and grammar check, and fact check if needed. Get an extra set of eyes to scan through it and send it to yourself first to check if everything appears right and the CTA works. Then press send.

In honor of Mother’s Day, Smart Meetings asked our smart readers to share how their moms—or how being a mom—have better prepared them for life as a meeting professional. Here are the endearing (and some very practical) results.

What We Learned from Mom:

  • My mom was an expert at reframing to the positive. When someone comes with a challenge or complaint, I’ve learned from her how to quickly recover and reframe the experience for them, so that we can turn a negative into a great outcome.
  • Be kind to people who help you plan and execute your events.
  • Speak clearly with excitement to capture the attention of your audience.
  • Keep calm and be graceful.
  • Always do your best!
  • Give back and try to make others comfortable.
  • Everything. (Thanks, mom!)

What We Learned from Having Kids:

  • With four children, I have learned to balance my time better and set reasonable expectations of people’s time. I’ve also learned to plan for difference. Even kids with essentially the same genetic material are exceedingly different in how they see the world. We must plan for the diversity that our guests bring to the table, too.
  • Time is limited. I’ve learned how to get a lot of items done quickly.
  • Juggling many schedules increases my attention to detail and time management skills.
  • I learned to find a better balance in my life.
  • Creativity.
  • You can never have enough extra napkins.

Some answers have been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Just like people, teams have personalities. While the nature of teams has shifted since our tribal hunter-gatherer days, teams are still one of our most crucial social structures. This is true in most organizations, and particularly the case in high-stress event planning groups. How we introduce hopefulness into our teams can be the difference between joyful collaboration and frustrating second-guessing.

More: Team Building for Tougher Times

While you may not always have the luxury of hand-picking your team members, the more you understand the personalities involved, the more you’ll be able to predict and manage the group dynamic. See if you recognize yourself and your co-workers in the list of team member archetypes below.

The Driver

Drivers are the leaders who keep the team focused and moving forward. Often, these are designated leaders, but in flat teams or organizations where everyone is meant to be equal, leaders often emerge naturally. If there’s no clear leader, one of the first team tasks should be to choose someone to direct the team. Typically, that person will be charged with guiding group discussions, assigning roles, and managing conflict—in short, keeping the team moving efficiently toward the end goal.

Drivers: focused, outcome-oriented, communicative, opinionated

The Organizer

With a strong organizer on board, the team leader may be able to shift some of the administrative activities. Organizers are process-oriented and often adept with lists, calendars and charts. Rather than impose their will on others (as some Drivers tend to do), they love to put systems in place to create an atmosphere of order and harmony where everyone can thrive. Be grateful if you have someone like a former assistant of mine who told me proudly at our initial interview, “I live to organize.” It was music to my Driver ears and the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship.

Organizers: process-oriented, detailed, supportive, team-focused

The Visionary

Visionaries are the creative engines of the team machine. Though they may sometimes seem lost in the clouds, it is precisely their ability to dream—and dream big—that can bring a breakthrough idea to the team. These creative types aren’t just found in positions like marketing or design. Learn to tolerate their flights of fancy, give them encouragement to express their thoughts and you may find they’re full of fresh process and people solutions that can help solve even the thorniest problems.

Visionaries: creative, big picture, imaginative, future-focused

The Naysayer

Contrarians of the corporate world have gotten a bad rap for being negative. But that’s actually their blessing. If you can put up with the Naysayers’ occasional sourpuss style, you’ll discover that their out-of-the-box way of looking at the world can bring an enormous amount of innovation to the group. Deal with their disruptive attitudes, listen to their wild ideas, embrace their sometimes-unusual methods and you may strike gold.

More: The All-Inclusive Meetings Revolution

Naysayers: disruptive, innovative, challenging, idea people

The Diplomat

Like the Organizer, the Diplomat is focused on the common good. Diplomats are relationship-builders and talented team players who can soothe ruffled feathers and bring out the best in others. They may not always like to take the lead, but they’ll happily weigh in with their own thoughts and encourage input from others. Respect their emotional nature, appreciate their calm demeanor and you’ll have a connector who can rally the team even in the most difficult moments.

Diplomats: relationship-oriented, harmonious, influential

The Expert

Though everyone on the team should have skills that allow them to contribute to problem-solving and organizational growth (except for the Wild Card), there should be at least one person on the team with deep subject matter knowledge. The Expert is the go-to answer person on the problem at hand, a skilled researcher, and someone who can pose and answer the questions no one else even thought to ask. Treasure them.

Experts: knowledgeable, research-savvy, informed, problem solver

The Wild Card

Not every team needs a Wild Card, that is, a person who comes from a completely different discipline and might not normally interact with the group. But by bringing a Wild Card onto a team or even just an occasional meeting, particularly brainstorming sessions where all ideas are welcome, you may get some great surprises. People who are new to the organization or business unit can often be great Wild Cards, bringing fresh perspectives and competitive knowledge that can be invaluable.

Wild Cards: fresh thinkers, challenging, information seekers, creative

Challenging Exercise

Ideally, by having a mix of personalities, you get the benefit of different skills sets, depth and type of experience and temperaments. Ask your team to identify their personality types and discuss how the group might click or clash. By putting differences on the table for discussion, you not only build trust and rapport, but you also make “otherness” a positive benefit to the entire team, instead of an isolating factor.

Libby Gill is the author of The Hope-Driven Leader.

Summer TravelIt’s summertime, and that means a lot of people are traveling, both for business and pleasure – and sometimes both.

Because crowds usually add to the hassle, it’s best to be prepared before you go. Here are 8 ways to travel smart this summer, from CNN and several other sources.

1. Pack as if your luggage may go AWOL

Just in case your luggage gets lost, pack overnight essentials such as a toothbrush, toothpaste and maybe even a change of clothes in your carry-on.

Smart travelers bring an empty, collapsible bag, like a duffel bag, that can handle items you pick up on the trip, including gifts and souvenirs. The reason? This is because if you’re flying, it’s generally cheaper to pay for an extra bag than a suitcase that’s over the airline’s weight limit.

2. Handy items to have

Plastic bags for dirty or wet clothes or shoes. Clothespins to hang laundry or pull drapes together to shut out light. Duct tape – not the whole roll; cut a two-foot strip and wrap it around a pencil.

3. Don’t get sick

Time suggests a few ways to stave off germs and bacteria, such as: Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth; use hand sanitizer after you’ve washed your hands; stay hydrated with water; on airplanes, order your drinks without ice — the water onboard is teeming with bacteria; on airplanes, get up and walk around once an hour.

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4. First aid 

No one plans to get sick or hurt on vacation (or business, for that matter). But it happens. 

You may not always be near a drugstore while traveling, so bring along a first aid kit stocked aspirin, motion sickness pills, bug bite medication, bandages, hydrocortisone, Ibuprofen and a topical antibiotic.

Airplane travelers should make sure their prescription medications are packed in their carry-on. Read the Transportation Security Administration’s guidelines for bringing medications on your next flight for more information.

5. Be safe

Again, no one expects to be faced with emergency situations. But if you find yourself in one, be ready. The Red Cross’ First Aid app can help you deal with choking, diabetic emergency, burns or allergies with just a few swipes of your mobile device’s screen. Especially handy: Even if you don’t know the emergency number in the country you’re in, you can download the Travel Safe app and you’ll quickly be able to reach the local police, fire or emergency.

6. Don’t overdo the food

Just because you’re in a new places doesn’t mean you have to go whole hog when it comes to eating. Yes, less expensive dining options can often be less healthy than the more expensive options.  But you cut your chances of weight gain in a few ways:

-Skip the bread and butter, breadsticks or nacho chips that are brought out first
-Ask for dressings and sauces on the side
-Stay away from fried foods

Don’t feel like you have to finish the whole meal. Take extra food in a to-go box, stash it in the hotel refrigerator, and enjoy leftovers for lunch the next day.

7. Know your rights

Airline passengers have rights, so it behooves you to know what you can do if, for example, there’s a delay on the tarmac or if your flight is overbooked.  The Department of Transportation offers useful tips for travelers to know ahead of time.

Contact the airline and the DOT with any travel complaints. If your concerns have more to do with safety and security, contact Federal Aviation Administration.

8. Insure the good stuff

It’s inevitable that some of your stuff will get lost or left behind, so it makes sense to get more valuable or hard-to-replace items insured.