January 18th, 2024

The best gadgets for business travel in 2024

Whether it’s an unexpected layover or your circadian rhythm feeling decidedly out of step, business travel often comes with as many tests as triumphs. Luckily, for every challenge, there’s a technology solution that can help to make your trip feel a little less like work.

Here’s a roundup of our favourite gadgets to maximise efficiency, comfort, and productivity while you’re away, whether you’re in the air or an unfamiliar boardroom.

Antler Chelsea Packing Cubes

A packing cube may not sound particularly inspiring but don’t underestimate the power of this humble innovation to transform your business travel. Antler’s Chelsea range comes as a set of four varied size cubes designed to fit snugly in your suitcase, neatly organize your belongings, and maximize space.

Each cube has a compression zip and a mesh top so you don’t have to rifle through the cube’s entire contents to locate what you’re looking for. Don’t bother about unpacking on arrival – just transfer the cubes from your bag to your hotel room closet. Once you’ve tried these space saving gems, you won’t go back to your old way of packing.

Etekcity Luggage Scale

Suits, shoes, books, and presentation equipment use up a lot of your weight allowance. Avoid excess baggage charges with this highly accurate scale.

The Etkcity Luggage Scale can handle up to 110 pounds of weight and only deviates by 0.1 pound, so you won’t have any check-in desk surprises. It also features a sensor for measuring the ambient temperature of your bags – useful for medication or electronics that are sensitive to temperature changes.

Bellroy Tech Kit 

When flying for business, your whole digital life travels with you and, with each device coming with an entourage of accessories, that’s a lot of tech to keep tabs on. It can feel like that tangle of cords and cables you pull out when reaching into your bag for a laptop charger is conspiring against you when you’re already at 37,000 feet.

This electronic organiser case keeps everything neatly accessible and protected. The Bellroy Tech Kit comes in an elegant, check-in-friendly design that allows for easy scanning at airport security. Think of it as a toiletries bag for your electronics.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones

Whether you need to immerse yourself in focused work or get mindful with some uplifting music, noise canceling headphones are a must for tuning out the noise of the crowds.

Our current favourites are Bose QuietComfort Ultra, which can be linked with the Bose music app for a sound tailored to your personal taste. These headphones aren’t cheap, but with world-class noise cancellation, their ‘immersion mode’ will transport you long before you’ve boarded the plane. Switch back to ‘aware mode’ if you’re listening out for your flight number.

Apple AirTag

Losing important documents is a nightmare scenario, especially ahead of a critical meeting or key pitch. Apple AirTag is a business travel game changer.

This super small, bluetooth tracking device uses the “Find My” app’s Precision Finding to guide users to the AirTag’s exact location through cameras and sensors, so you can easily keep tabs on your passport, iPad, or any documents you attach it to. It’s kind of fun too.

Anker 747 Power Bank

Remember how we used to move around strange cities with compasses, paper maps, and stopped to ask locals for directions? It’s a romantic notion but not one that’s fit for 2024, in our digitalised, near cashless society. But with everything online or on our phone, expense tracking apps, navigation tools, and digital boarding passes are rendered useless with a dead battery.

Make sure you don’t run out of juice with a power bank you can rely on. With dual USB-C ports and dual USB-A ports, and an immense 25600mAh capacity, the Anker 747 can charge multiple devices and accessories, including a MacBook Pro 13.4″ in just over two hours and a Dell XPS 13 9380 in just under three.

Conair Handheld Travel Garment Steamer

A crumpled shirt is not a good look for an important meeting. Conair’s powerful travel steamer works as well as a traditional iron to keep your outfit as smooth as your sales pitch.

Super lightweight and compact, and coming with its own collapsible hanger, it’s a convenient option that’s faster – and in the long run cheaper – than booking your garments into a hotel’s pressing service.

GoBudsGo Translation Pen Scanner

This OCR reader is a cool tool for international business travel. Ultra-portable, compact, and versatile, it digitises printed documents and supports 134 languages for two-way online voice translation, allowing for a smoother communication experience where language might be a barrier.

Scan text from print books, eBooks, labels, signs, and menus, and save it into the pen or sync to your android or smartphone. This will revolutionize your note taking. If nothing else, you’ll enjoy pretending you’re one of the Men in Black.

Headspace

Who says business travel can’t be mindful? Wellbeing trackers offer timely reminders to hit pause on our hectic schedules so we can stop and smell the roses. We like Headspace, which has a huge range of features, from short video insights of real people to soundscapes recorded in some of the world’s most inspiring locations.

More apps may feel counterintuitive when you’re trying to switch off, but this one will help you maintain balance and perspective when your regular routine is disrupted by travel. Its sleepcasts will transport you from the sound of emails popping into your inbox to a soothing bedtime story for grownups. It even reminds us to take five deep breaths first thing in the morning which is even more important in our work-focused lives.

Travel Leaders 365 app

Here’s another app that offers the innovative solutions needed to streamline your business travel. Travel Leaders’ integrated app features a handy itinerary of your upcoming reservations, 24/7 live chat support, real-time flight monitoring, and access to destination guides in 600 countries worldwide.