Travel woes: You know how when you are planning and budgeting for a trip, and you figure out a way to swing it, staying just under budget? Then the whole damned well-meaning plans blow up in your face? Yeah…me too.
With just under a week to go I’ve suddenly put a fire under my booty to start getting things lined up for my upcoming trip to L.A. for the Lucky Magazine conference. I am beyond excited to be among peers, learn from industry leaders and see some of my girlfriends who are L.A. girls now!
This conference is ending up like my trips to New York Fashion Week. Expensive before I even get there. You what what I’m talking about, right? My computer bites it just before the trip. I need new luggage. My camera starts to show it’s age. Oh gawd my FACE starts to show it’s age!
Here we’re talking gadgets and gear, we will work on the wrinkles in another post.
For a business trip you have to be prepared to show your best self and have the gadgets required for success. I swore this trip would not cost more than $1000. HAHAHA! (minions laughing in the background) I’ve found pretty excellent deals to share and hopefully spare you the last minute budget busting headaches.
1)The Gadgets
Office depot had an amazing deal on a computer recently. I wanted a pink computer like crazy! It was $400 and not very packed with goodies. Office Depot, albeit black, had a great computer stacked with lots of nerdy specs I want, and was under $300 with rebate!
Windows 8 and I are constantly in a bitch slapping fight but we’ll get used to one another eventually. It’s an Intel i3, so that makes it cheaper because they are on to i7 now. Fine by me. 4GB memory, 500GB hard drive. Web cam, Dolby speakers, and I can make the screen pink so it’s a compromise I’m willing to make.
I stay away from the AMD processors. Every one I’ve had over-heats and fries my computer. Touch screens are overrated and overpriced. Skip it and the fingerprints you would have to constantly clean. As for the memory..I could have bought the 6GB but it was an ugly computer and it’s cheaper to buy an 8GB USB stick.
2) Gear
I originally planned for some sort of tablet to take on my trip but once my computer conked out I couldn’t get both. So now I needed something to carry this bugger around in. I have a red computer bag but that doesn’t match my outfits for the trip and is SO circa 2008….yuck. I found a beautiful purple tote at Marshall’s (it’s actually a deeper purple than this but we’re still on that crappy old camera). Not the best deal at $70 but we locked on each other and I just couldn’t leave that pretty thang behind. I had to love it if I was going to be dragging it around all day while wearing designer heels!
A wheeled computer bag is a MUST my friend. If you are attending a conference you will need pens, paper, camera, chargers and of course the computer. That’s heavy stuff. Don’t kill your back. Throw it all in a padded tote with wheels and have one less thing to worry about as you schlep from conference room to conference room.
3) Chargers
Don’t forget! Obviously phone and computer chargers need to be in the carry on with those items. But did you know you can get a portable charger? It’s fabulous. We have one that we bought the kids for Christmas so that on long car rides, the boys weren’t fighting over the one outlet in the back of the vehicle. You can get this one from Walmart.com or Ebags.com for about $80. I highly recommend the Summit that plugs into the wall outlet to charge. Many charge by USB connection. Frankly I don’t want to use my computer battery to charge my phone. And one can do that with the charger that comes with the phone anyway. The Summit has three ports for charging other devices. It fits every portable electronic we have, other than the laptop. Tablets, iphone, android phones, etc.
(affiliate link) Electronics at Walmart.com! Search MyCharge products in electronics.
4) Apps
Make sure your phone has all the apps you need. Not just Facebook but Facebook Pages Manager for your business page. This helps so that you can load photos to the fan page, see insights, etc. I just started using it last night and know it will help me so much since I manage about 5 different pages. This way I can go in automatically, as the page manager for any of the sites I manage, and reply, post comments, etc. Very useful when you are going to be in breakout sessions and workshops for 12 hours.
Be sure that you have the latest updates for all the business apps you need. Also make sure to have enough storage space. Empty you photo galleries, your email folders. Don’t miss that sneaky Deleted folder and the Sent folder – they take up space if not cleared for a while.
Pack it all safely and enjoy your trip!
Are you going somewhere soon? Tell me about it!