Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending and participating in a three day Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (CNETS) conference in Montreal. Prior to going, I thought a lot about what to pack. Retired for more than a decade, I no longer have a professional wardrobe and I certainly wasn’t going to go shopping for clothes that I likely wouldn’t use again. Since most of my wardrobe is what I would categorize as classy casual, I shopped my closet and carefully chose outfits for each day. Most, if not all of the clothes have appeared on the blog before.

I left my photographer at home, so I had to resort to taking selfies using the full length mirror that was tucked into the corner of my lovely room in the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel in downtown Montreal. I clearly should have taken all the photos after dark when the lighting worked better for photography, but I’ve done my best to manipulate the remaining photos so that you can see what I wore.

For traveling, I like to be warm and comfy, so I chose my new striped sweater, jeans, and a very comfortable pair of white sneakers. My plane was delayed for four hours by a nasty snowstorm, so it was cold, wet, and very blustery when I finally arrived in Montreal. My bright red Calvin Klein jacket served me well and while you can’t see it hidden behind my coat, I carried my favourite travel purse which is very lightweight and large enough to carry any extras that I might need while traveling or exploring.

Day 1 was a learning and working day for a small group of us from across the country who are part of a newly formed CNETS Advocacy Advisory Board. While we had already met online several times, this was our first face to face get together.

The colours in the photo above are particularly bad, so I recreated my outfit below to give you a better look. I wore a semi dressy pair of navy pinstriped pants, one of the few items in my wardrobe that are left over from my teaching days. Now that wide legs are on trend again, they’re back in style! A sleeveless cabi top and a cardigan, also from cabi, completed the outfit. I was especially glad that I’d chosen to wear the cardigan, a workhorse in my wardrobe, as our meeting room was quite chilly, especially first thing in the morning. I’m also glad that sneakers go with anything these days!

Day 2 was a medical and scientific meeting. With the exception of those of us on the advocacy board who were asked to attend, this was a day for medical professionals who care for neuroendocrine patients. It took place last Saturday, so I wondered if the participants would dress professionally or, since it was a day off for them, would they dress more casually? Not having an answer to this question in advance, I wondered how I should dress.

Again, limited by what’s in my closet as well as my desire to be comfortable while sitting for many hours trying to absorb the information that was being presented, I chose carefully. I wore dark brown corduroy pants, the sleeveless animal print top that I recently featured here, and the same cardigan as the day before. As you can see, I did fit a second pair of shoes into my tiny suitcase. While most of the participants were dressed quite professionally, I didn’t feel out of place in this outfit.

Day 3 was a national patient conference available both in-person and online. For that day, I simply added a necklace to my travel outfit. It’s mostly hidden behind my phone in the photo!

In addition to what I’ve shown you here, another important item in my suitcase was my swimsuit. I seldom travel without one. After long days soaking up information about everything from how treatments and medications are approved and why it takes so long for them to go from being developed to becoming accessible to patients to disparities in cancer care to new developments in research to NET cancer pathology and treatment, my brain was on overload and I much appreciated the opportunity to unwind in the hotel hot tub and sauna on two of the evenings while I was there.

I would definitely give myself a high mark for packing on this trip. Everything I needed fit easily into my teeny tiny carry-on and I felt completely at ease in everything I wore. Definitely a win!