Business travel is a fact of modern professional life. Whether you’re traveling for an annual convention in your industry, to rally recruits at a college career fair, or to kick off the launch of a new business venture, here’s a quick list to help you pack for your next business trip.
1. Mobile Boarding Pass for Stress-Free Boarding
If there’s one thing nobody likes to do while traveling, it’s managing their paper trail—tickets, boarding passes, receipts, and coupons. What if you could manage all that paper with the convenience of your smartphone? A growing number of apps are allowing you to do just that. Passbook or Lemon are some of the leading examples and they allow you to keep your pockets free by giving you a quick and easy way to pull up a discount card at a cash register or a boarding pass before entering the plane. Using a mobile boarding pass can leave more room in your wallet for your business cards.
2. Never be without power: Pack a Surge Protector and USB hub in one
If you’re used to traveling abroad, you may already be well aware that wall outlets are a scarce commodity. Furthermore if you are traveling to a different country, you’ll need an adapter in order to use any devices you choose to bring along with you. It can be a hassle juggling a single adapter to charge all your devices—that’s why the seasoned business traveler always packs a portable surge protector with USB ports. Be a power source hero to your coworkers at your next convention by transforming a single wall outlet into a charging hub for laptops, cellphones and tablet pcs.
3. Pick your mobile workstation of choice for ease of use and “packability”
Whether you need a thin but powerful ultrabook, a full on desktop replacement, or can get by on a tablet PC will depend on your profession and the purpose of your business travel. Unless you’re an aerospace engineer you probably don’t need that hulking 17” desktop replacement. Tablet pcs like the iPad or Windows Tablet can be sleek alternatives to the large laptops of yesteryear. If you want the best of both worlds thin ultrabooks, while pricey, come with the processing power of conventional mid tier laptops allowing you to run all your usual software. Laptop/tablet hybrids are on the rise and can also be a great compromise for those who still need the full functionality of a keyboard with the portability of a tablet.
4. Bring your own WiFi
Avoid costly Airport WiFi by packing your own WiFi hotspot. Many of the latest smartphones can double as WiFi hotspots using your carrier’s 4G or 3G internet connection. The latest versions of iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows phones contain built-in features to create WiFi access points. Check with your phone’s manufacturer or mobile carrier to see if you can turn your phone into a hotspot. Alternatively you could purchase a personal mobile router, like the MiFi which can create a WiFi hotspot using cellular service similar to your smartphone device. Roughly the size of a stack of credit cards, a MiFi can support up to 5 devices on a secure broadband connection.
5. Avoid Checked Baggage with a Rolling Briefcase
Checked baggage prices are soaring, and if you’re only traveling for a weekend business trip to New York, you probably don’t want to deal with the hassle of lugging a full sized suitcase through the subway. Enter, the expandable rolling briefcase, the carry-on of choice for the modern business traveler. It combines the organizational perks of a briefcase with the convenience of a rolling suitcase. Pack a laptop, binder, and your travel essentials into the briefcase and you’re ready to roll through the airport to your next business meeting.
We hope these tips help make your next business trip a breeze! Stay tuned for another post on travel tips for ensuring that family travel is fun and stress-free!
[…] for business? We’ve got tips for you […]