Travel tech for digital nomads: from mobile Wi-fi and fast chargers to solar-powered backpacks
- People living and working remotely need reliability, security and affordability from their gadgets to be successful
- Here is a shopping list of the latest and essential appliances to have
Living and working remotely can be inspiring. For Meredith Valentine, who spent two years living and working as a digital nomad, the constant rush of new people and places fired her creativity.
“I was working for Johnson & Johnson and my job meant moving around a lot. I loved the flexibility and felt inspired in a way I don’t think you get from going to the same office with the same people every day,” says Valentine, director of global marketing at Skyroam, a Silicon Valley start-up that creates mobile Wi-fi hotspot devices.
These days Valentine is based in San Francisco, but she has not forgotten her footloose days. “The biggest thing for digital nomads is reliability – there’s nothing worse than getting to a new destination, get all set to upload a creative presentation or whatever and suddenly the Wi-fi does not work,” she says.
Aside from guaranteed Wi-fi, other key priorities for those living and working on the hoof are security, affordability and sharing.
“Digital nomads are all about sharing – they want to share their adventure the whole way, whether it’s via blogs or Instagram accounts,” says Valentine.