Whales have calves,
Cats have kittens,
Bears have cubs,
Bats have bittens,
Swans have cygnets,
Seals have puppies,
But guppies just have little guppies.

Amazon.com: The Best of Ogden Nash.

The recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile have spurred many to update (or establish!) their home quake preparedness kits. That’s good thinking. While you’re at it, make sure you have a plan for the members of your household to communicate with one another in case you’re not all home at the time.

For many Southern Californians, the likeliehood that we won’t be at home, but in or near our cars when an earthquake strikes, is good. So make sure your cars are earthquake ready, too.

Here’s what we carry in ours:

An emergency kit:

This is the 4 Person Deluxe Backpack Survival Kit from QuakeKare.com. It’s got first aid supplies, food, water, lights, a portable radio, etc. It all comes in a backpack, so you can take it with you if you have to leave the car. Make sure your kits have sufficient supplies for everyone in your family for a few days

Go Girls female urination device:

A GoGirl (go-girl.com) is “the way to stand up to crowded, disgusting, distant or non-existent bathrooms. It allows women to urinate while standing up.” I have these, and they work. ‘Nuff said.

Freeplay hand-crank radio with flashlight:

Freeplay EyeMax AM/FM LED Radio – no electricity/battery required. While a smaller, less rugged one of these comes with the earthquake kit above, we keep these around, too. Get one for your house while you’re at it. How many of us have battery-powered radios in the house, and how else will you get news (except on Twitter!) when the power’s out?

A USB charger for your phone/PC:

This is the Powerjolt Dual Universal 2 USB Blk Car Charger. I like it because it has two USB inputs, but there are similar (and smaller) ones that offer a single input if that floats your boat. Just make sure you have a charging cable for whatever you’d want to charge, and  keep in mind this will work off your  car’s battery, which you might want or need to conserve, but at least you’ll be able to charge your phone if needed.

Some other things to remember:

• Carry an extra pair of sturdy shoes and socks for everyone in your family. You might be out in dress shoes… or sandals… neither of which are ideal for trekking several miles, should you need to do so. If you don’t have extra shoes around, toss your old running shoes in the trunk next time you replace them.
• And of course, for your house, remember battery-operated lanterns:

We have the Coleman 4D Rugged Personal Size Lantern in each of our bedrooms. They also offer a “Family Size” version. Just remember to keep plenty of batteries on hand, and make sure they’re fresh.

And finally:

Make sure everyone in your family knows to check-in with a pre-agreed out of state contact. Cell service will likely be spotty after a quake and landlines may be down; it’s easier to place a call to someone back East than to someone on the Westside. Remember, too, that it may be more successful to send a text than place a call, so make sure that you’ve got Twitter’s text address, as well as that of your emergency contact(s), in your phone.

We all know another big quake will hit Southern California; it’s just a matter of when. Take a few minutes now – all of this stuff can be ordered online, just click on the images to do so – to make sure you’re as ready as can be.

Please add your own car-preparation tips in the comments below.

I’ve attended a number of professional social media conferences in the past six months. Each delivered value in its own way, but each could also have done better. If you’re organizing a conference, or thinking about doing so, please consider this my feedback in advance:

1. Power Up

Photo by Tom Rafferty

People who attend your social media confab are most likely heavy social media users, yes? To a person, they’ll want or need to live-tweet, live-blog, visit websites being discussed, take notes, manage email, file a story, take photos. Even the fiercest battery in the world won’t power their MacBook, Blackberry or Sure Shot for an entire day. Make sure that every attendee – not just press, or those who arrive early enough to sit near a wall – has access to power.

The 140TC conference at Skirball last September got it right. They provided power strips under every row of seats. Not only did this mean a grateful audience could stay connected all day long, it meant more people stayed in their seats for the panels and presentations, and fewer people crept out to find somewhere to charge up.

2. Pipe Down

Photo by seq

If you need to have a private conversation during a speech or presentation, take it out of the room. When you’re standing in the back of the room, or just outside the (open) door, we can hear you. Unless we’re right up front, we can probably hear you better than we can hear whoever’s onstage speaking. Yes, even if you’re “whispering.” Not only are these sidebars disrespectful to whoever’s speaking, they’re incredibly annoying to those of us trying to pay attention to that person.

Inexplicably, conference organizers themselves seem to be the worst offenders. If  your conversation really cannot wait until a break in the action, take it completely out of the room, and make sure to close the door behind you.  How do you think it looks to those of us who have paid to attend your conference when you’re not even paying attention? If necessary, assign one or two of your volunteers to go around and politely ask people to stop chatting or take it elsewhere. Even if the people involved include you.

3. I Didn’t Catch Your Name

Photo by Sofimi.

For meetings themed around social media, it’s incredible that conference organizers don’t do more to facilitate connections between attendees (again, 140TC is a happy exception). If it’s a Twitter-centric conference, how about including Twitter handles on the name badges unless the attendee requests otherwise? Many people use Twitter (for example) under a company name, nickname, or other alias. Instead of or in addition, include their website (see example at right) Give your attendees, many of whom may have met online but not in person, an easy way to recognize each other.

While you’re at it, make sure you have a way to print badges on the fly for walk-up registrants, to correct typos, replace lost or missing badges, etc.

Last, please provide a conference directory, with a list of those who registered, their Twitter (or preferred) ID, company and title, and email address (again, withholding any or all of that data at the request of the attendee during registration). This is a huge value proposition to those in attendance.

Perhaps paradoxically, I’m not a big fan of attendee lists being published online in advance. Sure, let us know the celebrities or social media superstars who will be speaking. But for security purposes, I don’t need the entire world to know my future travel plans.

4. They Call It Social Networking

Photo by oooh.oooh.

I’d wager that a large chunk of conference attendees rank the networking aspect of the meeting as high on their reason for being there. For some, it’s the primary reason they’re there (amazing as your speaker lineup may be). Smart organizers such as those behind this month’s Gravity Summit build “networking breaks” into the schedule .

In addition to letting people stretch their legs, use the restroom, or check their voicemail, these breaks allow attendees to exercise their social butterfly without ignoring the panels and presentations you’ve worked so hard to put together.

5. We Want To See As Well As Hear

Photo by Paul Excoff

Unless your conference or breakout session is taking place in a room with terraced seating, and/or it’s being projected onto a video screen, make sure the speakers or panelists are on risers. I’d have thought this would be obvious, but it’s not. A recent breakout session I attended took place in a narrow but long room (perhaps 18 rows of chairs). The panelists were seated in the front of the room, but on the same level as the audience. No one much past the third row could actually see any of them, which meant we weren’t sure who was speaking at any given time. It also meant we couldn’t identify those with whom we might want to follow up afterwards. This was frustrating, not to mention somewhat unprofessional. Please invest the few extra rental dollars in risers for your panel seating.

That’s My Two Cents

These are some of the things I’d want the organizers of the next conference I attend to know. What have I left off the list? Anything with which you take exception? Please add your thoughts in the comments, and feel free to share this post with event planners you know.

Sober (and in the light of day), she realized that….

With thanks to Miss Whistle for leading me to the site.