technology
Tools of the trade With electronic devices hitting executives from all sides, which models best serve travellers’ needs? Laura Collacott canvassed opinions from a selection of executives and found the BlackBerry tops the lot. Industrial Hygienist for the Middle East & Pakistan region Lucetta Holderness keeps a visual record of her travels. “I like to take my digital camera with me. Travelling to all sorts of remote locations in the world you never know what you’ll come across next. From cross country police escorts in Pakistan, to a family of monkeys swinging through a fuels terminal in Tanzania, I’d be lost without a camera to capture the life that goes on around the job you’re there to do. I never thought I would say it, but I can’t be without my BlackBerry! On starting my latest job I pulled a face on being handed a regular Nokia phone, fraught at the thought of life on the road without a constant connection. It actually turned out to be quite refreshing, you could concentrate on the work and experiences of the day without the continual distraction. I’m sure I’m a far better organised person as a result! I still carry my circa 1980 casio alarm clock around with me. It has never let me down once, unlike various mobile phone and hotel wake up call failures! The only answer to a restful night’s sleep is being worry-free you’re 5am wake up call is going to happen! I say bring back Concorde. There’s also plenty of scope for technological improvement in airport security, especially for the business traveller. Some kind of Matrix-style body and baggage scanning kit where you’re done in a matter of seconds and on your way to the lounge. Travelling from Heathrow last week was not the first
time I have run back to security in a cold sweat 20 minutes after I’d passed through, praying that any unscrupulous fellow passengers hadn’t lifted my forgotten laptop from the plastic tray! Leading Motivational Speaker Kevin Abdulrahmana is lost without his BlackBerry Pearl. “I always take my much dropped, overused, world-travelled and dearly loved BlackBerry Pearl. I always have my trusted laptop too for when I have epiphanies for my talks and trainings. Considering that today I can watch everything I want to watch (when I want to watch it) online, I’d say scrap TV. With paperless transactions and wireless internet being the norm in hotel lobbies and suites, the use of business centres are also becoming a thing of the past. If I had to take an ‘old school’ item, it would have to be Espresso Machines. They may not be portable, but without them, I wouldn’t be going too far. I never choose a hotel without one. In future, I hope to see ‘Teleport to Airport’ Device. It would save on so much traffic down time that I could otherwise be spending with friends at cafe or getting a tan on the beach before the next flight!” Frequent flyer Shiva Movahedi can’t do without a universal adaptor when on the road for Cisco Systems. “My universal adaptor is my life saver but I don’t go anywhere without a wheely bag,
so I don’t have to carry the laptop through the airport, and laptop headset so I can drown out background noise and focus on my work. I also take a travel laptop charger with me as it’s lighter than your standard charger, and an extra battery in case you don’t have time – or a plug – to charge up. And these aren’t gadgets but I always pack breakfast bars in my briefcase in case I don’t have time to eat between meetings and sleeping tablets, to deal with the jet lag.” It’s got to be the smartphone for Emirati Abdulrahim Alhashemi, Head of Communications and External affairs for a large multinational company. “The majority of my friends and I prefer to take a pocket smartphone when we travel, as it is handy and has a host of useful applications – phone, email, maps, GPS, translator software, money /units conversion and, most importantly, a web browser to find out where to go and what to see. Personally, I can manage to live without all other gadgets whenever I’m travelling. Electronic technology is improving daily and making our life much easier, especially in my field of communications which is most important whenever I travel.”
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