Tips For Travelers - 1997-03-17
Give Your Client A Portable Display
Hunt Manufacturing, a company based in Philadelphia, is offering Showtime Portable Displays, low-cost display products designed for travelers who need to deliver professional presentations but lack the meeting resources of large corporations.
Showtime Portable Displays, which come in small and large sizes ($205 and $269, respectively), consist of lightweight foam board panels in a fold-out frame system. Almost any presentation tool can rest on the surface--prints, photographs and small product samples. The display products can be set up in a matter of minutes without tools. For more information, call 800-765-5669.
Zap Your Message
A few years remain before every hotel lobby, airport terminal and office reception area offers fax and dataports for every laptop and PDA.
For now, business travelers may want to sample ZAP-IT, a software product created by Las Vegas-based DTS Wireless, which allows Windows users to send and receive phone, fax and e-mail messages via a single service. Messages can be sent to anyone with an Internet address, fax machine, phone or pager.
Although PC Magazine criticized the product for difficulty in installation and incompatibility with wired phone connections, ZAP-IT was lauded as "a breakthrough product that lets you use the coast-to-coast RAM Mobile Data wireless network to send and receive e-mail or faxes virtually anywhere in the U.S."
Required equipment includes a Windows-based laptop or an H-P 100/200LX palmtop, plus a wireless modem. The basic monthly charge is $9.95. For information and a free trial, call 888-243-8387.
Power Protection
Making sure surge protectors are available on trips isn't usually on the top of a road warrior's priority list.
San Francisco-based Peek Mac Inc., however, has designed GoSurge, a light and compact surge protector intended to be used anywhere on the globe. The device, available in stores for $14.95, includes two protected outlets and a power indicator light. Call 415-986-8895.
Conquering Stage Fright
Anxiety-ridden speakers can join New York-based Chock & Goldberg's "CPR" training, a course that breaks down the employee's stress response into circumstance, or reality of the situation; perception, the employee's view of the situation; and reaction--physical response such as tension and how to channel that into positive energy. Call 212-535-3477.
Adding Art To Your Luggage
Cody-Chrome Designs, a manufacturer of photographic imagery in Malibu, Calif., has introduced Artag, luggage tags with photo-art images for incentive planners as well as individual travelers.
Each tag, available in impact-resistant polycarbonate plastic or top-quality leather and packaged in a gift box for gift giving, contains an image of the customer's choice which is photographed and artistically rendered. Many of the shots also are digitally enhanced. The leather tags retail for $22.95 and the plastic-bound versions sell for $9.95. Bulk rates are available as well. To order, call 800-200-7468.
Digital Maps Set Course For Travelers
As corporate globalization brings more employees to more places around the world, the risk of getting lost in an unfamiliar city should not be ignored.
Etak Inc., a digital map publisher in Menlo Park, Calif., offers a mapping and satellite navigation system compatible with laptop and desktop PCs. For $399, SkyMap includes a digital map database and a global positioning satellite antenna with a GPS-enabled PC card.
Using the navigation guide, the user can follow his progress in real time on moving maps that display cities, major streets and highways in the United States. In addition, SkyMap can be used without the GPS card as a trip planner. The software allows users to download or print maps, calculate routes on highways and locate points of interest. For information, call 415-328-3825.