The Mobile Professional

While many professionals are still getting used to recent changes brought about by gains in information technology, the next wave of change is at the door. This next revolution will banish the idea that a worker needs to be on site in order to participate in company meetings. In the past, when company officials needed to gather, they would all arrange to be at a certain place at a certain time.

The heads of the various departments used to have their secretaries' call around to schedule important meetings. Now, with the increasing use of video-conferencing and third and even fourth generation wireless devices, physical presence is not an essential element to getting people to come together. No longer will important meetings be delayed because of a lack of attendees. Participants, who were used to dealing with their partners in person, will increasingly become accustomed to conducting their business affairs over long distances. This development is already making companies quicken corporate pace in an ever-increasing battle to gather market share by taking advantage of the latest technologies. Clients, who in the past would patiently await the arrival of a company representative, will have their business partners responding to their every demand. This, in part, will be made possible by the accessibility that all this connectivity has brought about.

Road warriors are consummate travellers. Not only are they able to handle their daily workload from anywhere they may find themselves, but they are also constantly available because of all their handy communication devices. Of course, this connectivity does not appeal to everyone. In fact, many of these high-profile, high-flyers are also becoming tired of being available for what seems to be 24/7/365. What used to be considered downtime, flight time, time spent on the train going from meeting to meeting, is no longer an excuse for not working. Smart phones, increasingly smaller laptops and tablets such as the iPad with Internet capabilities, and any number of other gadgets make it impossible for these executives to go 'offline'. In any case, if you have many road warrior friends, you might consider tracking them with an app as they dash about the globe.

Keywords / New Vocabulary

next wave = newest products and technologies
to be at the door = to have arrived
wireless devices = gadgets that use WiFi, Bluetooth and other technologies to access data
market share = part of the market that a company controls
connectivity = quality of being able to connect to the internet
road warriors = business people who travel on a regular basis
downtime = time to relax
to dash = to move quickly
to track someone = to follow someone's location