What’s in your laptop bag?
Lint, cables, mints, next year's budget?
By Ian Harvey
May 14, 2010
May 14, 2010
Flights and destinations may change, get cancelled or diverted, but road warriors know they can rely on their laptop bags to be there and ready for business. These ubiquitous “go bags” come in all shapes and sizes, and carry all kinds of equipment, starting with business-class notebooks, which are now more compact and robust, and feature encrypted hard drives and better access security with biometric devices to scan fingerprints and faces.
And because we are so mobile now, manufacturers are jostling to extend battery life while also cutting weight. Windows 7 has been a game changer, according to Chet Joshi, brand manager at Lenovo Canada. “We now have a dedicated CPU chip which controls power to the battery, both to extend the charge and the overall life of the battery.”
And then there are connectivity options like onboard WiMax and/or cellular.
“With an internal antenna, you also get much better coverage than with a hand-held cell,” said Hewlett Packard product manager Phil Smith.
Windows 7 also supports single-button access to Outlook’s calendar and e-mail without having to boot up the entire operating system.
With the move to mobility, Joshi said screen size seems to be settling to a sweet spot of 13 to 14 inches, especially as most users now have large flat-screen monitors at their desks and are willing to trade on-the-go screen real estate for weight.
Execs are also increasingly asking themselves if they need to lug a full notebook or can simply get by with a netbook.
Both Lenovo and HP, for example, sell business-class netbooks. The HP 5102 is based on the Intel Atom processor and runs XP Home or Win 7 Starter, while Lenovo’s x100 runs Win 7 Pro on an AMD Neo processor. Both have full keyboards and are small enough (with 10.1- and 11.6-inch screens, respectively) to work in those torturous spaces between airline seats.
Of course, smaller machines also leave more room in that laptop bag for other gear. Aside from magazines, noise suppression headphones, cameras, etc., some, like New York Times technology writer David Pogue, pack a $20 bill, “because you never know.” Others pack mints, movies to play en route or other distractions.
The point is everyone’s go bag is different, so we asked some Canadian execs “What’s in your laptop bag?”
Mike Coates has been president and CEO of media relations giant Hill & Knowlton Canada since 1995, boasting clients like Loblaws, Bell, HP and Motorola.
He logs hours between his home in Ottawa and seven other offices in Canada, as well as travelling internationally. Riffling through his bag he finds “my HP laptop and charger. Let’s see, there’s last month’s financials, my credit cards, cables for my cellphone, an umbrella, business cards and spare glasses. Oh, and a letter I wrote to myself at a course recently, reminding me to listen to my clients first before rushing to a solution.”
He’s also usually packing some reading material, most recently Jared Diamond’s 2005 tome Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive.
Robert Reaume, vice-president of policy and research at the Association of Canadian Advertisers, is on the road at least once a month, heading to a Canadian, U.S. or European city.
“I’ve got a top-loader Mancini bag, so I put my laptop in sideways and I really like it that way,” he said, adding it’s easier to retrieve the laptop in tight places. “But I am a pack rat.”
He’s not kidding. In addition to the computer and charger, he sports the Euro and North American adapters for his BlackBerry, a USB memory stick, a USB hub and an Ethernet cable. There’s also a Sharpie, two large black document clips, a small notepad, pens, back-up glasses and prescription sunglasses.
“Then, because I’m diabetic, I have a PowerBar in case my blood sugar goes hypoglycemic (low), back-up meds if I get stuck somewhere for a couple of days, and copies of my passport and other important documents like credit cards, driver’s licence, health card, etc. I got that tip a couple of years ago when a friend of mine went jogging in San Francisco and forgot her room key and, with no ID, couldn’t get back into the room until her sister faxed some ID from Canada.”
Wait, there’s more: a block of yellow 3M sticky notes, a notebook with coded bank numbers and other information, a supply of business cards and letterhead in a glassine protector and a list of his siblings’ birthdays.
Doug Cooper, country manager, Intel Canada. For 23 years Cooper has been dashing around the world with Intel, but he’s a bit of a minimalist when it comes to packing. “An Intel-based machine, of course, with Intel Core, which gives me nine hours of battery life,” he said via e-mail from the road.
The next item might surprise: an iPhone. But as Apple uses Intel processors in some of its products, the company is still in the family, so to speak. “I have my iPhone charger and cable,” Cooper said. “The iPhone is e-mail, entertainment, phone and a cellular modem when on the road. And a 16GB SD card for the laptop makes it easy to back up and move files.”
The last item is indispensable: “My Starbucks card. It keeps me charged on the road.”
Kelly Murumets, president and CEO of ParticipACTION. A veteran chief executive who has worked in telecommunications, Murumets knows a thing or two about life on the road. She has managed to shed her laptop, but not the bag.
“I no longer carry a laptop or a briefcase. Instead I carry a big yellow bag for my wallet, passport, BlackBerry, sunglasses (always wishful thinking), to-do lists, work files and sneakers, so I am always prepared to kick off the heels and walk.”
What's in Backbone editor Peter Wolchak's laptop bag?
Photo: Steve Uhraney
Left: Doug Cooper, Intel Canada; Right: Mike Coates, Hill & Knowlton
And because we are so mobile now, manufacturers are jostling to extend battery life while also cutting weight. Windows 7 has been a game changer, according to Chet Joshi, brand manager at Lenovo Canada. “We now have a dedicated CPU chip which controls power to the battery, both to extend the charge and the overall life of the battery.”
And then there are connectivity options like onboard WiMax and/or cellular.
“With an internal antenna, you also get much better coverage than with a hand-held cell,” said Hewlett Packard product manager Phil Smith.
Windows 7 also supports single-button access to Outlook’s calendar and e-mail without having to boot up the entire operating system.
With the move to mobility, Joshi said screen size seems to be settling to a sweet spot of 13 to 14 inches, especially as most users now have large flat-screen monitors at their desks and are willing to trade on-the-go screen real estate for weight.
Execs are also increasingly asking themselves if they need to lug a full notebook or can simply get by with a netbook.
Both Lenovo and HP, for example, sell business-class netbooks. The HP 5102 is based on the Intel Atom processor and runs XP Home or Win 7 Starter, while Lenovo’s x100 runs Win 7 Pro on an AMD Neo processor. Both have full keyboards and are small enough (with 10.1- and 11.6-inch screens, respectively) to work in those torturous spaces between airline seats.
Of course, smaller machines also leave more room in that laptop bag for other gear. Aside from magazines, noise suppression headphones, cameras, etc., some, like New York Times technology writer David Pogue, pack a $20 bill, “because you never know.” Others pack mints, movies to play en route or other distractions.
The point is everyone’s go bag is different, so we asked some Canadian execs “What’s in your laptop bag?”
Mike Coates has been president and CEO of media relations giant Hill & Knowlton Canada since 1995, boasting clients like Loblaws, Bell, HP and Motorola.
He logs hours between his home in Ottawa and seven other offices in Canada, as well as travelling internationally. Riffling through his bag he finds “my HP laptop and charger. Let’s see, there’s last month’s financials, my credit cards, cables for my cellphone, an umbrella, business cards and spare glasses. Oh, and a letter I wrote to myself at a course recently, reminding me to listen to my clients first before rushing to a solution.”
He’s also usually packing some reading material, most recently Jared Diamond’s 2005 tome Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive.
Robert Reaume, vice-president of policy and research at the Association of Canadian Advertisers, is on the road at least once a month, heading to a Canadian, U.S. or European city.
“I’ve got a top-loader Mancini bag, so I put my laptop in sideways and I really like it that way,” he said, adding it’s easier to retrieve the laptop in tight places. “But I am a pack rat.”
He’s not kidding. In addition to the computer and charger, he sports the Euro and North American adapters for his BlackBerry, a USB memory stick, a USB hub and an Ethernet cable. There’s also a Sharpie, two large black document clips, a small notepad, pens, back-up glasses and prescription sunglasses.
“Then, because I’m diabetic, I have a PowerBar in case my blood sugar goes hypoglycemic (low), back-up meds if I get stuck somewhere for a couple of days, and copies of my passport and other important documents like credit cards, driver’s licence, health card, etc. I got that tip a couple of years ago when a friend of mine went jogging in San Francisco and forgot her room key and, with no ID, couldn’t get back into the room until her sister faxed some ID from Canada.”
Wait, there’s more: a block of yellow 3M sticky notes, a notebook with coded bank numbers and other information, a supply of business cards and letterhead in a glassine protector and a list of his siblings’ birthdays.
Doug Cooper, country manager, Intel Canada. For 23 years Cooper has been dashing around the world with Intel, but he’s a bit of a minimalist when it comes to packing. “An Intel-based machine, of course, with Intel Core, which gives me nine hours of battery life,” he said via e-mail from the road.
The next item might surprise: an iPhone. But as Apple uses Intel processors in some of its products, the company is still in the family, so to speak. “I have my iPhone charger and cable,” Cooper said. “The iPhone is e-mail, entertainment, phone and a cellular modem when on the road. And a 16GB SD card for the laptop makes it easy to back up and move files.”
The last item is indispensable: “My Starbucks card. It keeps me charged on the road.”
Kelly Murumets, president and CEO of ParticipACTION. A veteran chief executive who has worked in telecommunications, Murumets knows a thing or two about life on the road. She has managed to shed her laptop, but not the bag.
“I no longer carry a laptop or a briefcase. Instead I carry a big yellow bag for my wallet, passport, BlackBerry, sunglasses (always wishful thinking), to-do lists, work files and sneakers, so I am always prepared to kick off the heels and walk.”
What's in Backbone editor Peter Wolchak's laptop bag?
Photo: Steve Uhraney
Left: Doug Cooper, Intel Canada; Right: Mike Coates, Hill & Knowlton
