Last year I shared my Ultimate Gadget List for Blogging Travel on my old blog. I’ve done a lot of travelling since then, and I wanted to refine it from what I actually used and what wasn’t needed. Last weekend I headed up to the Gold Coast for the Problogger Training Event with all the tech I needed, so that I’d be able to share all the awesomeness as quickly as possible. Today I wanted to share with you my essentials for a blogger’s conference tech kit! We bloggers love our gadgets and should you be looking to host us, please have the power points easy to find and readily available as well as free wi-fi. ;)
Olympus Pen, Apple MacBook Air 256GB, Cocoon GRID-IT Organizer*
What You’ll Need
- A Digital Camera I love my Olympus Pen. It’s one step below a DSLR which makes it lighter, but it takes amazing photos and great video too.
- A Laptop or Tablet I love my Macbook Air as it has the keyboard and I type faster on it, but lots of bloggers prefer to use an ipad or tablet for portability. It’s really about using what you’re comfortable with.
- Cocoon GRID-IT Organizer These are amazing at keeping all your cords and accessories together. I keep my external drive + cord, my camera charger + cord, my spare SD Card, my iphone charger + cord, and my laptop charger in mine as a minimum when travelling. They come in different sizes too.
- A Smart Phone For easy tweeting, instagramming and facebooking on the go.
- External Battery Pack For when your smart phone starts to run out of battery in the middle of a session. I have one that holds 5 full charges before it needs to be charged itself. It’s saved me many times.
- SD Card Have a bigger one handy for taking all the photos and for taking video when the inspiration hits
- External Hard Drive I have an Air, so I can’t live without my external hard drive. I use it both for backing up and for external storage.
For me, having all of these is like bringing my office with me. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything and that makes it easier for me to share what’s happening at the conference with those that couldn’t make it. Whilst the GRID-IT isn’t technically ‘tech’, it has been one of the best purchases that I’ve made for keeping all the cords and accessories together. I travelled with it for 3 months earlier this year and thanks to it, I didn’t lose anything!
I also think that the external battery pack is priceless. Smart phones are great for sucking up battery when you’re using them a lot and when you’re as attached to them as those of us who work in the online world, having a portable backup is like an insurance policy. Mine holds 5 full battery charges and I’ve used it for both apple products and android. It’s saved me on countless train trips, airport stopovers and in conferences where I tweeted and took notes on my phone.
Whilst every blogger has their preferred tech, these are a great start for anyone hoping to get the most out of their next digital or blogging conference. These are usually the first thing I organise before going away, even before the clothes. The best thing about all of these is that they will all fit in your carry on luggage so you don’t have to worry about them getting lost.
I also like to take a notebook and a pen for note taking on the day, but that’s not really all that techy, it’s a bit old school.
What are your tech essentials for conferences? I’d love to hear!
*Amazon Affiliate link. If you choose to purchase from this link I will receive a small commission which assists in keeping this blog running. As always, I only share the awesome things that I own and have used.