How Meeting Planners Can Avoid Getting Sick While Traveling


It’s no secret that most meeting planners are frequent flyers. To anyone that’s not in the meetings and events industry the life of a meeting planner may seems glorious. I don’t want to take away from the exotic locations that many meeting planners get to see but I’ve worked with many planners that could barely remember what city they were in. With the type of travel schedule that a meeting planner has, quite often he or she can become run down or sick.

Our routines tend to take a backseat when traveling. It’s easy to fall into that trap. Most times it’s unintentional. Whether it’s grabbing a quick muffin and a coffee on the way to the first meeting of the day or skipping lunch because there is just too much going on around you, it’s easy to have your health take a backseat.

Tips to Keep Meeting Planners Healthy

For meeting planners, it’s important to take time some down time. It could be a simple walk around the outside of the hotel or convention center. Here are a few pointers to help you avoid getting sick:

Water: drink lots of it. Drinking water while flying is particularly important to keeping yourself hydrated. However you may want to avoid drinking tap water depending on your location.

Sleep: both prior to and during the travel period sleep is vital (I can hear many planners laughing at that one).

Food: try and avoid those quick unhealthy snacks. If you’re on the go grab a piece of fruit. While it’s okay to eat junk food once in a while, if you’re a frequent flyer you might want to keep the junk food in check. If you have a sensitive stomach maybe don’t try to be too adventurous with your food selections while traveling.

The air that you breathe: especially on planes can be unhealthy. Using a nasal spray to help keep your nasal passages moisturized will help protect you in close areas.

Hand sanitizer: have plenty on hand and use it.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a webpage that provides a list of items that you need to be on the lookout for, based on your destination. It’s definitely worth bookmarking and checking often before you depart.

For frequent travelers, like meeting planners, it’s a good idea to keep as much of a routine as possible when traveling.

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