The ICF Annual Conference opens in Des Moines a week from today, and registration numbers this year are running ahead of where they sat this time in 2023. If you've been putting off the packing list because it felt early, it isn't anymore. This is the practical rundown, not the schedule highlights — those went out with your registration confirmation.
Members who've done this before know the pattern: the first day feels manageable and the third day is the one that gets you. Convention center floors are hard on feet that spent the spring standing over a vat instead of walking a show floor, and the air conditioning is drier than any cave most of you are used to working in. Bring shoes you've already broken in, not the ones you bought for this. Bring a water bottle you'll actually refill, because the coffee line moves slower than the sessions start.
What to actually pack
A crossbody bag or a slim backpack beats a briefcase once you're carrying a program, three vendor samples, and somebody's business card you don't want to lose. If you're rooming with another member, a single surge protector solves the four-chargers-one-outlet problem before it starts. And if this is your first ICF conference, register at the info desk the moment you arrive rather than waiting for the opening session — the line triples by nine.
For those flying in, Des Moines in mid-July runs warm and occasionally sticky, and the walk between the main hall and the overflow rooms is longer than the map makes it look. Plan five extra minutes between back-to-back sessions rather than sprinting the hallway in your good shoes.
What's worth prioritizing if your time is tight
Not every member can clear a full three days, and that's fine — the conference is built to give something to a one-day visit too. If you can only make one day, most returning attendees point to the middle day, when the competition results are announced and the floor is at its fullest. If your interest runs toward the credentialing side, the certification office hours are worth a stop; several members have used a conference-week conversation to finally sort out which credential track makes sense for where their business is headed.
New members: don't feel obligated to work the whole floor in one pass. The point of a first conference is meeting three or four people whose names you'll recognize on a committee email six months from now, not collecting every handout in the hall. Sit with people you don't already know at lunch rather than the table full of familiar faces — the conversations that turn into a phone call six months later usually start there, not in a scheduled session.
If your membership contact information has changed since you registered — new email, new employer, new phone number — get it updated before you travel rather than after. Badge pickup runs off the record on file, and a stale email address is the single most common reason a member misses the post-conference survey and the session recordings link that goes out the following week. It takes less time than the walk between halls, and it's easiest to handle now, before the week gets away from you.
One more thing worth flagging if this is your first time attending a conference this size: the exhibit floor can feel like it's demanding a decision from you at every booth. It isn't. You're allowed to walk a full lap before you stop anywhere, take notes on what you want to come back to, and skip whatever doesn't apply to your business this year. The members who get the most out of a first conference tend to be the ones who treated the first hour as reconnaissance rather than a race to see everything at once.
See you in Des Moines. Bring the good shoes.
The International Cheese Federation (ICF) and More Cheese are entirely fictional. This post is demonstration content created for MemberJunction. All people, organizations, events, courses, certifications, figures, and quotations in it are invented, and nothing here represents a real association, a real business, a real person, or real professional advice.