Here's what I took on my last business trip (I'm in high tech marketing; the conferences I go to are filled with IT professionals). In this case, I also had opportunity to go out at night and visit friends so I wanted options I could "dress down" for after work.
I wore a black knit (doesn't wrinkle) dress on the plane, with comfortable Stuart Weitzman ballet flats:
http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/st.....at/3158470
.. and carried my black patent leather handbag which fits quite a lot.
I packed a three piece suit. In this case, it was taupe because I was traveling to FL in the spring. Just choose whatever is appropriate. If you are traveling in Fall, black would do. I also packed a second dress, three blouses, a pair of black slacks, a cardigan, and a pair of comfortable 8-hour heels. As well as a denim jacket and a clutch for dressing down the outfits after work.
15 pieces total:
3 piece suit (taupe)
2 dresses (one black, one color block in taupe, citron, and black)
1 coordinating slacks (black -- slim/skinnies)
3 blouses (one pink shell; one cream L/S; one black sleeveless with taupe polka dots)
denim jacket
cardigan
1 flats (two toned taupe and black)
1 heels (nude)
1 handbag (black)
1 clutch (cream)
1 black belt (if i did this over, I'd go with a leopard print belt to add interest.. but I didn't own one yet
Day 1: taupe skirt + cardigan + pink blouse + flats + black purse (worked because the flats have black in them)
Day 2: color block shift dress + suit jacket + flats. To go out after work, I swapped suit jacket for the cardigan (it turned out to be rather warm; denim jacket would also dress it down) and put on the heels.
Day 3: suit pants + creme L/S blouse + belt + heels. No layer, but any of my options would have worked.
Day 4: black pants + S/S patterned (black with taupe polka dots) blouse + heels. Again, worked with choice of blazer, denim jacket, or cardigan.
Day 5: traveled back in same black knit dress as I traveled there.
Tips/Lessons I've learned:
Definitely helps to build around a neutral color scheme. Mine, as you can see, was taupe and black and cream, with the wild pink blouse thrown in there for fun.
I could have easily worn different heels with some of these outfits, to make it more interesting, but I stuck to simple nude pumps as they worked with all of them and minimized amount of shoes I needed to take.
At these conferences we end up standing and walking A LOT. I saved the heels mostly for evening, or conference days when I knew I'd be sitting around, or attending only half day with time off my feet to rest.
Those SW ballet flats are worth EVERY penny if you need to save your feet.
A denim jacket dresses down business gear.
I could have gone another week mixing and matching with this capsule.
I didn't really need the black pants -- the suit pants OR the skirt could have been worn with the third blouse. But I took them anyway. These were not typical trousers; they are more trendy/slim fit. I was thinking about after-hours possibilities.
If you prefer skirts, skip the pants and add coordinating skirts. I didn't do this because I had no idea whether the conference would be freezing AC or too hot. I like to have options. I'd rather bring options, and not wear everything, and instead repeat items if necessary. For example, had it been colder, I'd have worn the pants again, instead of the skirt and dress.
I have learned for these conferences that I never really need more than one suit jacket.
