How do you dress for conferences?

[Anonymous]

A sheath dress. Jacket if I am presenting, cardigan if I am not. Wedges or flats. A big scarf in my bag for when they crank the AC. Earrings and a watch, but no necklace because most of the time name badges are on a lanyard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wear what I'd normally wear to the office. Business casual. Slightly dressier if I'm presenting.

At least this, or else a suit (lawyer here).

Same. Suit in the fall/winter, business casual in the summer. Never casual.

[Anonymous]

I'm in education, too.

A suit or business-y separates if I'm presenting. Otherwise, usually a jersey dress / leggings or pointe pants / tunic.

There's whole contingent who wears matching t-shirts / sweats / sneakers, and sometimes silly things like light-up headbands (no shit). Thankfully I'm seeing less and less of this as time goes on.

[Anonymous]

Also in ed, and yes, business casual. But not a suit. If I wore a suit, people would think I was interviewing. We don't really wear suits.

[Anonymous]

I wear a casual dress or black pants. Just in case I meet someone to network with, I don't have to think "they're going to think I'm a slob". But sitting through sessions all day and walking around, I wear flats or sandals to be comfortable.

[Anonymous]

I'm in agricultural marketing and wear at least business casual, if not more formal. There's usually college agri-marketing students in suits. It's an industry expectation.

[Anonymous]

I work in media. Conferences are always business casual with cardigan/jacket because those hotels are always freezing. A little more formal if I'm presenting.

[Anonymous]

I have to work our booth at conferences, so I'm always professionally dressed. We have two work-issued black blazers with our company name stitched on that we are required to put over any outfit of our choice.

I was just in Vegas for a conference and I swear, some of the people looked like they strolled in from the pool to swing by and pick up some lit and swag.

I did a job fair at a local college in mid-April and so, so, so many of the young almost-grads came by to drop off their resumes wearing shorts, tees, flipflops, baseball caps. Like, the ads for the job fair stated that on-site interviews were being given by most companies/agencies participating. I passed on so many descent looking resumes because they were dressed like beach bums. First impressions matter, kids!

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher and I think it's pretty much the norm for people to dress casually at conferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also in ed, and yes, business casual. But not a suit. If I wore a suit, people would think I was interviewing. We don't really wear suits.

Op here. I've been wearing dresses all week- nice, appropriate summer dresses and heeled or wedge sandals. Definitely not suits. But man I saw a girl yesterday wearing workout leggings, a tank top and flip flops. That's just a bridge too far for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what kind of conference it is. If it's like conference for video game design, I would expect that; but if it's for federal contracting, I'd obviously expect the other end of the spectrum. I'm assuming it's the latter, so dress business casual but a little more formal if you're holding down the booth or going up for presentation.

It's not federal contracting. It's education. Which I guess should have given me a clue but there are big names at this conference, it's just surprising to see this kind of dress at what is a venue for professional development and, presumably, some level of networking.

Not surprised. The teachers at my kid's mcps middle school dress casually. Think: Capri jeans, t-shirts and flip flops. They don't own pantsuits.

I've got two decades under my belt as a white collar professional in the public interest arena, and I can report that dress codes vary by industry.