10 Tech Travel Tools Every Speaker Should Know

Beth Ziesenis

Unless you’re a webinar wizard, you probably travel now and again (or all the time) for live presentations. Even though life on the road can be a challenge, technology today can make things so much easier.

Here are a road warrior’s top 10 travel tools and resources to take some of the trouble out of the travel.

TripIt
TripIt is a wow-oh-wow tool, a life-changing tool, an I-can’t-believe-I-ever-left-home-without-it tool. The concept is simple – just forward all your travel confirmations to plans@tripit.com, which is connected to the email address you use to forward. TripIt absorbs your confirmation and makes all the plans available on your mobile device.
Waze
If you’re driving to an engagement (or even around town), Waze provides real-time traffic and hazard updates from all its users. Waze is a huge help in medium and large cities – not so much in rural areas.
Hipmunk
The travel planning site with the adorable mascot, Hipmunk lets you quickly sort travel options by depart or arrival time, and they have an “agony” filter that reveals the flights with the best routes and fewest hassles.
FlightAware
If a storm’s a-comin’, FlightAware will tell you if the planes are a-goin’ with real-time updates from airports and airlines.
SeatGuru
Never sit in the worst seat on the plane again. This service shows you seat maps of every plane and recommendations for the best spots.
Minimus.biz
This is a store, not an app, but it’s an amazing resource for travelers. The site sells travel-sized products for your every need on the road.
Google Now
Google has all kinds of tools to help the beleaguered traveler. Google Now helps you organize your travel details, such as boarding passes, rental car info, directions and drive time. The bits of info appear as cards that you can flip through during your trip. The app integrates with your calendar and uses predictive technology to know what you need before you need it. A little creepy, perhaps, but it’s where we’re headed.
Google Translate
If you travel internationally, Google Translate can save you from awkward language barriers. The app lets you speak or type in 80 languages and provides instant translations. You can even use your viewfinder for instant translations of signs and documents.
Uber and Lyft
If you want to save some money on local transportation, these sharing-economy services are the way to go. You can summon a private car within minutes in hundreds of cities in 45+ countries. You pay via the app, so no money changes hands (and the taxi driver doesn’t do that scary thing where he rubs a pencil over your card and a carbon-copy credit card slip).
StayConnect
Studies have shown that TV remotes are one of the germiest places in a hotel room. Check your TV for a mobile app option from the menu, and use your mobile device as a remote control with the StayConnect app. For a buck a year, you can even have an interactive TV listing, customized for your location. The device also lets you watch movie previews and rent from your device. (Other studies show that your mobile device has more germs than a public toilet seat, but that’s a different issue).

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Beth Ziesenis

Author, Professional Speaker, Your Nerdy Best Friend at AskBethZ

Beth Ziesenis, aka Your Nerdy Best Friend, is the chick you call when you need to know if there IS an app for that. Beth has made a verb out of the word nerd, writing books and speaking about free and bargain tech tools for anyone with a job and a smart phone. From her home base in sunny San Diego, California, Beth helps computer users all over the country filter through thousands of apps, gadgets, widgets and doodads to find the perfect free and bargain technology tools for business and personal use through presentations and her newest book, Release Your Inner Nerd: Tech Tools and Apps to Get Organized, Get Creative and Get Ahead, available on Amazon.com and other online outlets.