It was bound to happen at some point. So it was, at the end of a successful trip to CEDIA 2024, I lost my tablet.
There is no one to blame but me. I broke my routine. Plane lands, PA system goes "ding," I stand up, grab my carry-on, and fill it with all the earthly possessions I took out during the flight. Pretty simple, right?
[Editorial: Some Old Things Can Be New Again]
Well, this time I did things a little differently. I had finished up Season 7 of Bosch on my earlier flight (highly recommended series, by the way) and my battery level was low. The connection time between my flights was a bit tight, so I didn't have time to juice up my tablet in the terminal. So, I pulled out a cable and used the port at the seat in my aircraft to charge my tablet during the flight. That's something I almost never do.
After the flight, I was very focused on remembering to tuck away that USB cable. It's an easy thing to forget. (Yes, irony. I get it.) As fate would have it, there was no one in the middle seat of my row, so I put my tablet there while I worked on properly stowing my Jabra headset and USB cable. Gray tablet, gray seat—and when I got home, I was seeing red.
It would have been nice if the person in the window seat had alerted me, but perhaps they didn't see it, either—or perhaps they wanted my outdated tablet for themselves. Maybe another passenger or a member of the cleaning crew took advantage of easy plunder. It could have even been thrown away by mistake and is now trying to live its best life in a landfill surrounded by half-full barf bags and Biscoff wrappers.
Attempting to talk to a human being about my lost item was an exercise in futility, but I was directed to an online portal for reporting a lost item. I was assured the airline would search its inventory of lost items. Two days later, I got a pleasant "sucks to be you" email acknowledging my lost item was still lost, and while they would keep looking, the clock was ticking. Let's just say my recovery expectations are set nice and low.
I got a pleasant "sucks to be you" email acknowledging my lost item was still lost.
If there is a silver lining to this frustrating blunder, at least it happened at the end of my trip. And if there's another silver lining, I found a new and improved version of my tablet on sale the next day—at a lower price than what I paid more than two years ago. Considering I don't use a top-shelf tablet and its lifespan is maybe five years (based on software support), I got off easy.
It's not always that way with Pro AV equipment. Many of the tools of our trade are small—but far more expensive than my old tablet and far more important for day-to-day operations. Whether motivations are opportunistic, nefarious, or even accidental, it's not hard for someone to walk away with something as sophisticated as a PTZ camera or as innocuous as your favorite flashlight.
[On Your Business: Technology Isn't Enough]
Visually verify those conference room systems regularly. Use those Kensington slots. Embrace those sign-out sheets. Remember who's wearing the wireless mics before they leave. Your equipment inventory is your livelihood, so make sure keeping track of it is a priority.
