What Gets Me Through the PDC: Conference Gear

What does every geek need to get through the PDC, or any technological conference for that matter? I have the simple answer that works for me and that you might be interested in :-)

First and foremost, I need a laptop. It has to be lightweight but usable, so a high-end netbook could do it but a mid-range notebook does a better job. My choice for this conference was the Dell Latitude XT, a multitouch 12.1” laptop that served me well for Windows 7 courses and demos in the past. It has a decent form factor, isn’t too heavy, and its battery can last the few hours if I lose the occasional fight-for-an-outlet.

Next, if I have to get through an entire day without a charge, I need an external battery. Laptop replacement batteries are OK but you need to hibernate which takes a lot of time, and you need to carry them around and charge them inside the laptop. Instead, I use an external battery (the EL1901) that weights just under 0.8kg, and provides my notebook with well over 8 additional hours of battery time.

I couldn’t imagine walking around with the laptop and external battery and the laptop charger and all the other tools without a decent trolley. For the PDC, the trolley question was easily solved – my company, Sela, provided custom-tailored trolleys for the group of experts that are attending the PDC.

When you’re coordinating a group of almost twenty experts in four rental cars, you really need the proper means of communication. Sela bought prepaid cell phones from various wireless providers so that we can all talk to each other and coordinate our activities. (A lesson learned from last year’s PDC, when there was a much smaller group of us around – and yet it was extremely difficult to keep everyone informed.)

Other than that, there are the obvious: business cards, USB flash drive, a couple of USB cables, an extra charger, a power adapter, a jacket for the air-conditioned conference halls, etc.

What do you carry around at conferences?