Namaste! This week we kick off our second and final week working in India’s booming tech mecca, Bangalore. Since our arrival, we’ve enjoyed non-stop tuk-tuks, local hospitality and true culinary awesomeness.

Learning how to cook the local cuisine.

We admire Bangaloreans’ simplicity, dedication to work, and focus on food and family. We also appreciate the many benefits of working in Bangalore, as most hotels and cafés offer free-WiFi and temporary-use cell phones are easy to come by. Additionally, the 10 ½ hour time difference between India and my stakeholders allows me to spend my mornings touring, providing for uninterupted work during the afternoon and evening hours.

Life is good here in sunny Bangalore.

But I can’t forget the challenges I came accross while WiFi scavenging throughout Europe. Over the past four months I’ve kept a list of new products/offerings I would like to see come into the marketplace within the next few months or better yet, in time for every Digital Nomad’s holiday list.  Below is this Digital Nomad’s holiday wish list.

My Digital Nomad Holiday Wish List:

1. A Portable Quiet Room: No matter how strong the WiFi or how plentiful the plugs, any café worker knows background noise, or lack thereof, is key to a successful day of virtual meetings in the “coffice.” I would like to see a helmet- or an umbrella-like device that would allow me pop in for some peace and quiet, so that I could take a call in the loudest of steam-squealing, glass shattering cafés without giving away my location.  
2. The Perfect WiFi Workspace Database: It happens. You check online, verify from the reviews, call ahead, even ask at the counter before ordering, “Is the WiFi working today?” And no matter how much checking, sometimes the WiFi just isn’t there. You could spend your time looking up the phrase “Can you restart your router” in Italian or you could search a perfect, non-3G or WiFi requiring database for the closest free or paid WiFi connections.
3. A Pocket Sized USB Printer: Following the all-important WiFi, plug accessibility and peace & quiet, we have basic printing needs. After hours of staring at a screen, I would like nothing more than to mark up an excel sheet or edit the latest round of business requirements, old school with a pen and paper. What I’d like to see is a pocket sized printer that prints straight from the USB drive.

As an avid consumer (of almost all things), I often wish that there were more products out there for mobile workers. We’re certainly getting there with apps like WorkSnug and iMeet®, but would love to see the industry double time it to meet the needs of a growing mobile workforce.

Have you ever worked from a coffee shop or café? What have you wished for?