For the travel aspect of your question, research the geography and logistics before you travel, i.e. look at Google maps to get a rough idea of where your hotel or conference is with respect to the airport, and know what options there are for getting from airport to hotel (shuttle bus, subway, taxis, etc) and how to use them, i.e. where to buy tickets etc. This can save a great deal of stress, especially if your travel plans go off the rails a bit - like if your flight arrives late and the shuttle bus you planned to use is no longer running.
Don't book tight flight connections - better to spend a boring hour in an airport than having to sprint from one end of a huge airport to another, with luggage, to get your connection flight.
Arrive in the destination city as early as possible in the day, probably the day before the event, with lots of time to get to your hotel. It can be very stressful for a newbie traveler to arrive in a strange city after dark, feeling lost and alone. It can make you vulnerable and cause you to take stupid chances with sketchy taxis, drivers etc. out of desperation to get to your hotel.
Example: I'm a small town boy, and I once flew to NYC to visit a friend who lives in Manhattan. I was a fairly experienced traveler, but it was my first trip to "big, scary New York city". On the flight, the airplane broke down and we had to land in an intermediate city and wait for a new plane. By the time I got to New York (La Guardia airport) it was 1:30 AM and the airport was deserted. There were no taxis at the airport and I couldn't get a hold of my friend. I was really uncomfortable and was contemplating sleeping on a bench at the airport until dawn when I was approached by a car-service driver who offered me a ride to Manhattan, sharing the car with a stranger. Out of desparation, I accepted. I never did see the other passenger, he was just a shadow in the back seat. I was petrified that maybe I was being scammed and would end up robbed and sleeping with the fishes in the east river. After we dropped off the other passenger at a well known main street hotel, I found out that my South American driver had only been in America a few days longer than I had and did not know the city well, and couldn't read street signs because of poor eyesight anyway. Fortunately, I'm a bit of a geography nerd and had pored over a map of NYC before travelling, so I was able to give HIM directions to my friends apartment on a backstreet in the west Village.