Packing for Thanksgiving travel with two young kids is hard enough. Making sure I have all the correct technology with me for a five-day trip is nearly impossible. On my last trip back “home,” I ended up packing eight smart devices for a one-week trip. Our list for two adults, a 2-1/2 year old and an infant: two MacBook’s, one iPad3, one Kindle, two iPhone4’s, one 7-inch Android Tablet, and one iPad1 — and yes, we used every single device almost daily on that trip. Don’t even ask me about the logistics of keeping all of these devices charged.
So for this trip, I’ve really been thinking about what devices I really need to bring to do my job, stay connected, and remain sane. We decided that this will be a “mobile only” trip — two iPad’s, two phones, and two chargers. I can do about 90% of all of my work from my iPad3. The only real work-related task I won’t be able to do is file an expense report.
My IT department is making it easier and easier for me to work in this new environment; we have a mature Mobile Device Management platform, a content locker on my device that stores all of my most recent presentations, cloud-accessible services like Chatter for collaboration and updates and, of course, email.
So what is your device plan for Thanksgiving travel this year? Does your IT support this type of work environment? What can they do better?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sounds about right. For our trip to Hawaii earlier this year we took: iPads 1, 2 and 3, Samsung GalaxyTab 7, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro (Retina), 3 iPods and 2 iPhone 4S. That is for 2 adults, an 8, 7 and 4 year old. These days even just going to dinner involves our phones and probably an iPod and one of the iPads.
On long trips technology is great. It keeps the kids entertained and the parents sane.
For work I’m down to my MacBook Pro (Retina), iPad Mini, iPhone 5 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II. I fully accept that my kids’ technology obsession is my fault.
ipads at dinner…..
I want to hear more about the content locker for your iPad!