Episode Summary:
So, in today’s show, I’ll share with you my experience after recently attending two short conferences, spanning just a couple of days each.
You’ll discover the gear I took with me, what went well, what did not go so well and my main takeaways.
Before diving in, I just wanted to thank you for listening to the show.
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So now, let’s dive into today’s topic.
Early November, I attended two short conferences:
- The Youpreneur Summit, Nov 3rd through 4th 2018 in London
- The Luxembourg Internet Days, Nov 13th through 14th 2018, well, in Luxembourg
The gear I took with me:
- iPad Mini 4 (Amazon.com affiliate link)
- Logi Focus Keyboard case (Amazon.com affiliate link)
- iPhone 8 Plus (Amazon.com affiliate link)
- Aukey Battery Power 3600 mAh (Amazon.com affiliate link)
- Mini tripod (Amazon.com affiliate link)
- Joby GripTight Mount (Amazon.com affiliate link)
The apps I used the most:
- Apple Notes
- Camera & Photos
- Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
- Connecting to untrusted wi-fi: TunnelBear VPN (Affiliate link)
When not to take a laptop?
- Taking notes & pictures
- Basic e-mail & surf capabilities
When to take a laptop?
- Need desktop apps or the ability to juggle between multiple apps efficiently
- exemple 1: Mailplane & Streak add-on that allows to delay the sending of e-mail and track read receipts
- exemple 2: Excel or Keynote or Google Docs are easier (at least for me) from macOS than iOS
- exemple 3: Specific to Macpreneur: Recording, editing & publishing the podcast
Because the Youpreneur Summit took place during the week-end, at the end of school holidays in Luxembourg, I did not need to take the laptop with me and it allowed me to just take a carry-on luggage.
For the Luxembourg Internet Days, I had access to my computer in the morning and the evening, so again, it was better to just take the iPad Mini with me
What went well:
- Battery life was a non-issue
- First because I shared the load between my iPhone and iPad Mini
- Second because both the iPad and the iPhone 8 Plus have a bigger battery than my MacBook Air and the non plus iPhone
- Third because I did not use them constantly either
- I had a battery pack with me but I did not use it in the end
- The Wi-Fi at both locations was reliable enough, even with the VPN turned on that my notes were syncing seamlessly between both devices
- This allowed me to take pictures with my iPhone and take notes on my iPad, while editing the same note on both devices without syncing issues
- Finally, thanks to the 2x optical zoom, I could take decent shots from the slides, even though I sat about 2/3 back from the main stage. It certainly was better than using the iPad Mini camera and I was glad I had an iPhone with two lenses
What did not go so well:
- At the Youpreneur Summit, it was quite dark during the talks and because the bluetooth keyboard is not backlit, typing certain keys was an issue.
- Next time, I’ll either take a USB-powered light or buy a backlit bluetooth keyboard
- At both conferences, switching from the iPad Mini to the iPhone to take pictures took longer than I has wished and in some cases, I missed the slide.
- It’s not a super big deal but next time I’ll need to find a way to shoot pictures faster and maybe keep the iPhone unlocked, during talks and manually lock it in-between
Main takeaways
- It’s possible to travel light for short events
- Foresee potential lighting condition issues and in that case, a backlit keyboard is super handy
- A full day of battery life is attainable but take a powerbank with you anyway
- If you sit far away from the stage and screens, having a 2x optical zoom is definitely a plus