Packing for #scio12: sharing space with others.

ScienceOnline 2012 is the biggest instantiation yet of a conference that started small(er) in January 2007. There will be lots of opportunities to have interesting conversations and build connections. There will also be lots of opportunities to get on each other’s nerves.

If you’re sharing a room with another conference-goer at one of the conference hotels, here are a few items that might foster peaceful coexistence.

1. Snore-reducing nasal strips. To snore is human. To be able to minimize your audible snoring when you’re sharing a room with someone else who wants to sleep is … maybe not divine, exactly, but surely considerate.

2. Ear plugs. Some of us sleep like stones, but some of us know that we may have a hard time sleeping well, especially in a strange hotel room, if there are random sounds nearby. Pre-emptively blocking those random sounds with ear plugs may be the right call. (Depending on the level of amplification, ear plugs may also be useful at open mic night.)

3. OTC analgesic. It’s nice to be able to manage your own headache, and to have enough to offer if your roommate has developed a headache, too. (In the event of ethanol intake, which can lead to headaches the next morning, roommates might also remind each other to drink plenty of water before going to bed.)

Of course, for a significant portion of the conference you will be sharing space with many more people than you’d want to cram into a hotel room. And, given that this is a conference all about science on the Web, lots of those people are going to be wielding electronic devices whose batteries are being depleted.

Which means that you may contribute to the tranquility of the room by bringing one of these:

Pictured is a mini surge protector, more compact than a full-blown power strip, which lets you plug three devices into one existing outlet.

As a bonus, this one also accommodates a couple of USB devices that might be in need of a recharge.