In days gone by, the business traveller with a laptop was considered to have everything he needed. Things have changed a lot since then. These days some cell phones have more power than the laptops did in those days. We have compiled a list of what we believe to be essential travel Gadgets in our technology world of today.
Laptop
Okay, this is an obvious one, but we thought we better include it just in case. If you are going to travel with your laptop, make sure your laptop has a long enough battery life that you don’t need to be plugging it in all the time while you are traveling.
Smartphone
Another obvious one, as most of us can’t leave home without one. However, when you travel you have to make sure that the frequency of the phone matches the country you are in. In most countries you can buy a SIM card that will give you a local number, and you can buy prepaid minutes and save yourself a fortune from roaming costs.
Battery pack
A battery pack can be incredibly useful. Sometimes your phone might not have a chance to charge up fully, or even your laptop might be running down, and this can save you a lot of heartache. If there’s nowhere for you to plug in, you can just plug into the battery pack with a USB cord and you are safe to keep on using your Gadget.
USB pen
This is basically a simple device. It is just a pen with a USB drive built in. Two items at a business traveller must have when they travel, just combined to make it easier. You can never have enough USB drives when you travel.
Micro projector
Some micro projectors can be as small as a deck of cards. This can make doing a presentation at a client’s office so much easier. The light levels are lower than a larger projector, but they’re quite sufficient to show something in a darkened room. As a bonus, you can watch movies in the hotel room on the wall.
Smart watch
Having a smart watch gives you an alternative to constantly pulling out your cell phone. It can remind you of flights, meetings, and important messages. Some watches can even take verbal notes. How cool is that,
Noise-cancelling headset
We consider this to be one of the best investments we have had in a long time for travel technology. When you are on an airplane, the heavy background noise can get to you after a while. With a noise cancellation headset, you can almost eliminate it completely. It is quite a shock sometimes to suddenly hear silence. They also allow you to hear your music, or lecture, much clearer and without distortion.
Personal router and firewall
These days, security is very important. It does not take much for people to access your computer on an unsecured network if they really want to. The best thing to do is bring your own router. You can get a router that is smaller than a pack of cards and can connect to WiFi or the hotel internet. It acts as a firewall and rebroadcasts a secure WiFi that you can connect to from your own devices. You can even use them as a VPN to your office, adding another level of security.
Traveling for business these days, requires a lot more technology. These are just a few things that we find that we must have. There are many others, such as a portable travel scanner where you can scan full-colour documents, or a portable printer that will print them out. Traveling these days with a carry on makes some hard choices. Do we need that extra piece of tech or another shirt? These are life’s difficult questions for the business traveller.
