Connections 2014 is right around the corner! You've made your travel plans, you've selected the perfect agenda, you've downloaded the Connections mobile app... Now comes the hard part: figuring out how to capture all the great information that will be coming your way so it's useful (and accessible) when you get back to "the real world."

As a veteran conference attendee, I've got a few tips to share.

1. Be prepared
Plan ahead so you know exactly what tools you'll need. If you'll be taking notes on a laptop or tablet (see below), make sure it's charged up and ready to go-that goes for peripherals like a mouse or keyboard, too. If you're more of a pen-and-paper person, be sure to stock your bag with plenty of each.

2. Go digital!
It will be much easier to record your thoughts-and access them later-if you take notes electronically (via laptop, tablet, or an app like Evernote). And these days most people can type faster than they write, so a keyboard will also improve your note-taking efficiency.

3. Don't try to capture everything
Remember that, first and foremost, you're here to listen and learn. Your notes are not meant to recap every word the speaker says, but to summarize the key thoughts and ideas. Don't get so caught up in taking notes that you miss the next important take-away!

4. Make the most of social media
Social channels like Twitter can be a great way to capture (and share) key thoughts from conference presentations. And if you use the conference hashtag (CNX14), it will be easy to locate your tweets later-and those of other attendees who might have caught things you missed!

5. Organize your files
Rather than creating one long document for all your conference notes, start a new doc for each session you attend. Be consistent with your naming convention (for example, name files by topic, speaker, or date), so you'll be able to quickly and easily find what you're looking for.

6. Share notes with your team
Unless you're going to make a formal presentation of what you've learned, consider sharing your notes with your team as-is. They may not be pretty, but they'll be easily consumable-and you can always offer clarification and answers to follow-up questions if needed. File sharing applications like Dropbox and Google Docs make this incredibly easy.

7. Reserve time to process your notes
We're all guilty of this: you get back to the office, dive into the backlog of emails, and never look back. Attending a conference like Connections is only valuable if you can put your learnings into practice, so block off time (within a few days after you get back or even on the flight home) to go through all your notes and identify action items.

Got other tips and tricks to share? Let me know in the comments below!