How to save money at your next conference

Along with all these women and a few men, I’ll be in San Francisco next week at BlogHer 08. I also have a few conferences to attend this fall - Blogworld Expo in Vegas in September, possibly BlogHer Boston in October, and probably the Thin Air Summit in November here in Colorado.

But bloggers aren’t the only people heading off to conference. Next week, a friend is going to her company’s conference in Texas, while her daughter attends a student leadership conference in San Diego. My friends who have direct marketing businesses go to conference either in the spring or summer. And there are always writer’s conferences, social media expos, and writing retreats to attend year round.

Even if you only go to one business conference a year, it can be expensive – more so when you’re a freelancer and there’s no one who will pick up the tab. So how do you save money at conferences?

Here are some tips:

Use frequent flier miles – I use a Frontier Airlines credit card for everything so I can earn miles. My husband and I are frequent fliers on United, so when I shop at Safeway, I earn miles. (If I use my Frontier card there, I earn at both programs.) The key to using frequent flier miles is to book months in advance, and to be flexible with your times and dates. Frontier is especially tricky as they only have one or two frequent flier seats per flight.

Book your conference early - When you register early, you get a discount. It could be a savings of $100 or more, so make sure you know when the early bird reservation deadline is.

Book hotel and car reservations early, too – Hotels sell out quickly. And car rates go up and down. If you need a car, check back frequently with a travel website like Orbitz to find out if you’re getting the best price. If you book early enough, you probably are, but it’s always good to check once in awhile. Same with hotels. You may find that a cheaper hotel reservation opens up. Usually, you can cancel car and hotel reservations or change them without penalty as long as you do it early enough. Check their rules first.