I’ve always been a gadget person—I think a person should be prepared to easily capture any event or happening worth sharing. Today, this crosses over to professional communicators, as gadgets for capturing and sharing are starting to become more common, or even standard-issue, for the evolving communications professional.
1. Flip Video Camera
Many of us at Edelman keep a Flip Video Camera
I’m happy to hear that Robert French at Auburn University requires his PR students to buy a flip video camera in lieu of books, and I’m hoping others will follow his lead.
2. Digital Camera 
I always like to have a digital camera on hand for quality still shots. Again, you never know who you may run into or what photo opportunities may arise. Always be prepared by keeping a camera that’s small enough to carry with you.
3. Phone With Mobile Internet Access
Who can live without 24/7 access to email, RSS feeds and Twitter? Having access to the Internet, regardless of location, is incredibly empowering—and it is becoming an expected must-have in the professional world. Besides, if mobile is the future of communications, we’d better get on board and start exploring now.
4. Handheld Recorder
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5. MP3 Player
The MP3 player has a duel-purpose. First, it’s great for loading up podcasts to keep up on industry news or for consuming audio from internal communications (like those audio case studies I talked about). It also doubles as extra file storage, which can be handy for the on-the-go professional.
What about you? Any gadgets you can’t live without?
I don’t think you can classify it as a gadget, but I wouldn’t be able to live without my macbook. It’s right up there with food, water and shelter.
And I’m waiting for the day when we can have one device that will combine all of those essentials listed in your post. They are getting closer with the iphone. And I saw a nokia that has a 5 mp camera. I can’t wait to see where we are in 5, 10 years.
I completely agree on both points. 1. My Macbook is also a huge part of my creative endeavors. This is how I take all of the content that I gather through these gadgets and turn it into something meaningful 2. We’re definitely moving toward consolidating all of these capabilities into one tool, and I have no doubt we’ll see this sooner than later.
Thanks, Allie. I’ll add that the reason I have them buy the Flip cam in lieu of a book is because there isn’t *one* book that we can buy for that class. There are ten or more that have perhaps one section/chapter we could use, but to-date, there isn’t one really good book for use as a class textbook.
As for your other gadgets, I’d love to be able to require all of those, too. The phone is especially interesting for me, as I’d like to have students use qik.com as a site to experiment with re: spot news, for instance. But, there aren’t any really inexpensive phones I can find that will work with the site. Also, the student would have to have an unlimited minutes data account, and that isn’t realistic yet for students. I even explored the idea of getting one phone and having them share it, but that doesn’t seem doable yet, either.
Good post. Thanks for the link.