Remote Working from Las Vegas

[Sharon Hill]

Bright and early tomorrow morning I'm flying to Las Vegas for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) Media XChange conference and trade show. As Sales & Marketing Manager for Suburban Newspapers of America (SNA) it's my job at this conference to "work" the exhibit hall, saying hello to SNA associate members/industry vendors and talking to other industry vendors about the products and services they offer newspapers, and the marketing opportunities our trade association offers them.

I'm all set for my office away from home. I'm taking the airport shuttle rather than driving so that I can use my Treo to send and reply to business emails, and have my laptop in my carry on so that I can work on an industry article in the airport and on the plane. I have a subscription, through Sprint, to mobile broadband with unlimited access which allows me to get online anywhere. Yes, a lot of airports offer WiFi but not all, and most charge $7.95-$14.95 per day. While that may not seem exorbitatnt, consider that you generally only spend about an hour online in an airport. While I'm at the conference I can use the camera and camcorder features of my Treo to capture stories, testimonials and pictures and video of vendor products and executives for our Web site. While PDA resolution isn't high enough for print photos it's taken some great shots for the Web.

I always carry a shoulder bag and one with an easy access pouch for my Treo, plenty of room for a book to read, a couple of trade magazines I just never got time to get through, a side pocket for water and a couple small reporter notebooks. With very few exceptions, no matter what your job or your business, it's just not that difficult to work from anywhere if you have the right tools and the right supplies.