How to Travel Like a Digital Nomad – SBB E-Shift Railshows

Katrin Gygax is likely Switzerland's first digital nomad.

She has been working from Swiss trains since way before the term became mainstream. Check out one of Katrin's mobile offices:

Today's Office Looks Like This

As a freelance writer, Katrin has been following a clever plan. It combines working from a mobile train office with bicycling through Switzerland. In a nutshell: Between writing assignments, Katrin will leave her bicycle locked up at train stations increasingly far away from her home base in Zürich.

Every time she has a new gig, she will hop on a train to retrieve her bicycle to continue her tour. This way, she gets to spend more and more time working on a train. The author of "Today’s Office Looks Like This" tells me: "My bike is in Lausanne right now, waiting for me to ride it to Montreux..."

In this day and age, it comes to no surprise that digital nomads rely on electronic train tickets.

#EinfachBequem - Simply Convenient

I am using the SBB smartphone app for all my ticket purchases. The workflow is really smooth and saves precious time. In one go, I can look up the train schedule in the app and purchase a ticket using my account. Gone are the days when I had to wait in line at a ticket machine.

In case you have never purchased a ticket on your computer or through the SBB app, this is the time: Starting this week, the creative people at Swiss Federal Railways have come up with quite a surprise for commuters: A full-size living room is going to surprise commuters at several main stations including Geneva, Basel, Winterthur, Bern and Zürich. There, you can learn how to become a digital nomad like Katrin, or how to speed up your ticket purchases in general.

I am not supposed to spill all the beans about the E-Shift Railshows, but one thing is for sure: I cannot wait to be zipped around by SBB staff on their comfy couch! Another reason is the giveaway for Samsung Galaxy S6 edge smartphones. I happen to be in love with this particular phone with its beautiful curved screen. It is my companion on the go, and I always show my mobile SBB ticket to the conductor with secret pride:

More Information

The SBB E-Shift Railshows are taking place at the following stations:
- Genève Cornavin, Aug 31 and Sept 1, 2015
- Basel, Sept 2 and 3, 2015
- Winterthur, Sept 4 and 7, 2015
- Bern, Sept 8 and 9, 2015
- Zürich, Sept 14 and 15, 2015

Enter the SBB giveaway and learn about mobile ticketing

(This article has been published in collaboration with SBB Swiss Federal Railways; key visual copyright SBB, train photograph courtesy Katrin Gygax)