Opportunities rise from travel chaos

15 Aug Opportunities rise from travel chaos

Posted at 00:00h in Commentary, IT by

Air travel got turned on its head again last week, as British authorities broke up a plot to smuggle explosives aboard U.S.-bound aircraft. For the vast majority of U.S. travelers, new regulations means more checked baggage, if only to be assured they have toothpaste and shampoo when they arrive at their destinations (I’m envisioning a new business opportunity in cosmetic kits sold at airport arrivals terminals). For the sake of security, we’ll all wait a little longer at baggage claim.
It could be worse; you could be traveling internationally. Anyone traveling through the U.K. faces the real pain: an overseas flight with no laptop, no reading material, nothing but edited-for-airlines movies. With many investigations still underway, it’s not likely that the British Aviation Authority (BAA) will lift the ban on carry-on luggage any time soon. That means business travelers face a tough choice: leave the laptop at home or place it in checked luggage.
That’s no kind of choice, and it leaves U.S. to U.K. travelers with only one option – take the data and leave the laptop at home. I hate to sound opportunistic, but this is a choice that has finally made a market for an array of ultra-portable disk drive and portable applications solutions, from the likes of U3 and Route1 (among other alumni DEMO companies), as well as Web-based applications of all types.
Having critical data or even applications on a drive in the sky won’t make air travel time any more productive, but it will make work possible after you touch down.
For those who choose to check their laptops, expect to see a barrage of ads for the latest, greatest computer cases.
The most useful travel tips, though, will come from the road warriors who read the DEMOletter blog. These tips from the new frontier will help fellow travelers make the best of a bad situation.
This weekend, I take off for my first international travel since the new rules were imposed last week. I’ll report from the road, and I ask you do the same. How are you making business travel tenable? What are you doing to transport your technology? Let’s fill this column with comments and get everyone through this current crisis.

Chris Shipley is the executive producer of NetworkWorld’s DEMO Conferences, Editor of DEMOletter and a technology industry analyst for nearly 20 years. She can be reached at chris@demo.com. Shipley, has covered the personal technology business since 1984 and is regarded as one of the top analysts covering the technology industry today. Shipley has worked as a writer and editor for variety of technology consumer magazines, including PC Week, PC Magazine, PC/Computing, and InfoWorld, US Magazine and Working Woman. She has written two books on communications and Internet technology, has won numerous awards for journalistic excellence, and was named the No. 1 newsletter editor by Marketing Computers for two years in a row. To subscribe to DEMOletter please visit: http://www.idgexecforums.com/demoletter/index.html.

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