Hotel room prototyping

I traveled to the Twin Cities to shoot the Maker Workshop segments of Make: television, so I needed to bring along a lot of my tools, materials, supplies, and parts. Both for on-screen making, and hotel room tinkering. Sometimes, we figured out how to present our projects at the eleventh hour, so I had one night to cook up a demo to fit the new talking points. (Bill Gurstelle was probably up a lot later than I was, building brand new trebuchets and such…)

Once, I forgot to bring solder. I ended up twisting lots of wires together in my room late at night. I ought to get a big Pelican case or tackle box full of gear, that’s ready to go. You never know when you’ll be called on to hack something together in the field. Anyone have suggestions for their mobile workshop?