Have office, will travel. It's the rallying cry of a growing number of globetrotting worker bees thanks to stylish, voyage-friendly gadgets that allow them to function (often literally) on the fly.
For them, workstations can range from a "cushtop" on an urban patio to a messenger-bag-cum-computer-station in the middle of a desert. And their office-on-the-go essentials combine high technology with chic design, encompassing light-as-a-feather laptops, fashionably functional carrying totes, travel-friendly wireless mice and, of course, increasingly indispensable PDAs.
"I make sure it's a really light model so I can work on planes," Shalini Kapur says of her current laptop, Dell's Latitude D430, which slips easily into her oversized purse. "I work a ton in airports."
The marketing director for DMG Worldwide, which produces the National Home Shows, Kapur spends just one week a month at her office and has all but abandoned desk-working. Her preferred locales are the waterfronts and coffee shops of whatever city she's in.
"I've worked everywhere," she says. "But my favourite when I go to Vancouver is Capers, a grocery store with a sitting area. I always end up working there. I try to pick places where I can eat and have coffee."
Facilitating her portability is the Wi-Fi revolution, which allows anywhere Internet access. More and more coffee shops, restaurants and hotels across the country are offering the service for free and cities like Toronto and Ottawa provide access in downtown cores. "Without Wi-Fi, I'd be back in the traditional office," Kapur says.
Brands such as Apple are also pushing the trend with ultralight notebooks such as the MacBook Air. Accessories-wise, companies such as California-based Belkin have designed light, comfortable "cushtops" that protect laps from hot laptops, a wireless water-resistant mouse and laptop sleeves made of water-resistant neoprene (think wetsuit material) in a rainbow of enticing colours, including Jetset Red. California-based Timbuk2 (http://www.timbuk2.com) makes colourful, floral laptop bags that open up to reveal organizer pockets, creating a café table mini-office.
For photographer, author and filmmaker James Sidney, light and compact ware is essential. "I've never worked in an office and never worn a tie - except at a funeral," says Sidney, who can be found during the summer months in Toronto's Trinity Bellwoods Park, answering e-mail and scanning his shots.
His arsenal includes a MacBook Air, an iPod and a Sony digital voice recorder. "I squeeze it all into two carry-ons as much as I can," he says. Another of Sidney's must-have items: his BlackBerry Pearl, which is equipped with a black rubber case that proved particularly useful last August when he got caught in a sandstorm during a shoot for a magazine in Namibia's Nambi Desert. "The winds would pick up unexpectedly and blow for hours," he says. "The fine-grain sand got into everything," he adds, except, of course, his PDA.
Even among the most diehard gadget fiends, though, a desire for low-tech simplicity can sometimes win out - both Kapur and Sidney swear by their tried-and-true notebooks. (Hers is always leather-bound, while Sidney prefers the Moleskine model once toted by Ernest Hemingway.) According to the photographer, the notebook comes in handy when he's shooting in remote locations where power is unavailable. Plus, "no one's going to take the Moleskine," he says.
