Tips on mixing work with travel vagabonding

My trip during Canadian winter in 2010 was possibly the first time I’ve mixed work with travel vagabonding.  After a several month long contract ended, I decided that I’ve had enough of Brisbane (for the summer anyway), didn’t feel like heading to Toowoomba (where I grew up)… and decided to buy a return ticket to Vancouver.  This was also the first time I went overseas by myself.

Other than going through the usuals of preparing for this trip, I was also browsing online and trying to get myself sorted in terms of “getting to know the digital and creative industries in Canada”.  Whatever that meant.  Meetup, Facebook, Twitter, Eventbrite and good ol’ Google Search were used.  Events either registered or marked in a diary.  I randomly, for some reason, decided that I’d like to go to this investment event.  Got into a bit of trouble with customs – imagine saying that you’re in Canada for family/travel (which it was, mainly) then having printouts of an investment event found in your folder.  “I forgot about that…No, seriously, I don’t want to go to that event anymore.”

Then, on my first night in Montreal, I went to an Autodesk Christmas party.  Imagine 7pm, it’s cold and snowing and you’ve just landed in a new city a few hours before, and then trying to make your way to a games/software industry event only being continuously lost as Google Maps had the location pin in the wrong area.  Not fun.

It is possible to mix work with travel vagabonding.  So here are my tips!

Also, work is loosely defined here..I’m not talking about business travel exclusively but rather more in the entrepreneurship / location independence sense as well.

  • Arrange your appointments prior to the actual travel itself but set aside some time to look out for upcoming/new opportunities that may come up.
  • Try to organise the transport to and from your accomodation including the map.  I usually take screenshots of both the transport options as well as the Google Map pin location of where I need to be.
  • Try to pack for both work and travel vagabonding.  Yes it is possible.  In fact, if you want to do both, where you travel to will play a role as obviously certain cities will make it easier to juggle both.  For example, I packed for San Francisco and Los Angeles for a few weeks – the trip involved a three day conference and tradeshow and various smaller events in the tech space…it also involved a trip to the desert!  The only thing that I regret packing was a pair of really expensive shoes that I ended up not wearing at all.
  • Pack as light as you can.  Especially when it involves trade shows as they usually involve lugging around various samples and marketing materials.  Having wheeled carry on luggage will definitely help – not only can you use it on your flight but it can also be used to carry those marketing brochures/samples/random items you pick up at trade shows and conferences and is also lockable.
  • I’ve don’t work-travel with a laptop these days.  Just an iPad, a bluetooth keyboard and a stand to prop these up.  Having light tech really helps.
  • To roam or not to roam? It depends on the area – some carriers have partnerships with certain overseas carriers (ie Three UK and Meditel in Morocco), sometimes it’s possible to just rely on wifi (ie travel in San Francisco/Santa Monica) for your mobile comms.
  • Arrange your travel to coincide with major industry events in that city/region.  For example, I am in the process of arranging travel to Dubai and they have arranged some packages with Madinat Jumeirah as well as custom VIP group outings within this and the surrounding emirate.  Another example was a recent trip to Monaco which was combined with a trade show that had some good partnerships with the state and resulting in reduced priced transport, preferential rates for hotel accommodation as well as restaurants and bars that have specials just for the event’s delegates.

So those are just a few tips that I have in terms of mixing work with travel vagabonding!