Be the first out of the airport with these suitcase tips for business trips, writes Ann-Maree Moodie.

'This is my secret to travelling with carry-on luggage," Simone (not her real name), a well-known company director, says. She holds aloft what appears to be a pencil case. "In here is everything I need for an overnight trip to Melbourne or Brisbane."

It's a well-worn piece of advice that the professional traveller flies only with carry-on luggage.

If your luggage is checked in, you have no control over it. It can be lost, misplaced or it can miss its flight. Then you have to wait for it at the luggage carousel - an area of the airport where good manners and patience are often in short supply.

As George Clooney's character, Ryan Bingham, says in the movie Up in the Air, "You know how much time you lose by checking in? Thirty-five minutes a flight. I travel 270 days a year. That's 157 hours. That makes seven days. Are you going to throw away an entire week?"

The challenge for the professional business traveller on an overnighter is to fit everything they need into a bag that's small enough for an overhead locker on the aircraft. For men, this is relatively simple: one suit, two business shirts, two ties, one pair of shoes and a few personal items. By wearing the suit they usually have enough room in the case for workout gear and runners.

Women have also learnt to "pack like men" for a business trip, perhaps adding accessories and another pair of shoes to increase the options for the outfit they have chosen. But what about bringing a computer, paper files and the other paraphernalia that the business trip may require you to have?

For men it's easy - they carry a briefcase. But for a woman, it's a choice of bringing either a briefcase or a handbag, not both if she also has a carry-on case.

Just ask any woman who's tried to hide the fact she's got a third bag - a briefcase or a handbag - slung over her shoulder in the vain hope the stewards at the gate won't notice.

Trust me, they have seen and heard it all.

"That's why I only travel with a briefcase and a cabin-size bag," Simone says.

"The briefcase doubles as my handbag. All the personal items I would normally have in my handbag I put in this small bag [the pencil case].

"I put it in my briefcase, where I also have my computer and my work documents."

According to a study by a British travel insurance company, the average woman will wear only 22 of the 44 items of clothing she packs for a two-week holiday.

The study, published in Britain's Daily Mail in July, also found 25 per cent of the 3000 British women surveyed took 10 pairs of shoes but most (75 per cent) wore only six.

"Women often travel with things they just don't need and will never use," the fashion designer Liz Davenport says.

"Most women have trouble deciding which shoes to take and they usually also travel with too many skin and beauty products rather than just transferring what they'll need for two days into smaller, travel-sized bottles."

Davenport, whose business was founded 35 years ago on the principle of efficient packing for business women, does her best to live her philosophy of co-ordinated outfits packed into carry-on luggage. "You have to train yourself to have only carry-on luggage because it's so much more efficient," she says.

"The advantages include being able to arrive at the airport later because you can check in online, you have no 'bag drop' and you can walk straight to the gate.

"And you can't lose anything because you just walk off at the other end."

But she is constantly reminded of the extra stress and expense of checking in luggage when she has to take multiple samples of clothing for interstate training days. And she also understands why "us birds of paradise" have trouble with limited packing especially when an evening event is on the agenda.

"Most girls aren't prepared to just take a sequinned scarf to dress up their business attire - most women want to wear a special outfit," Davenport says.

"If a man has a formal event, all he needs to pack is a bow tie and he can get away with wearing the dark suit he was in during the day.

"But women have to be appropriately dressed, especially in a business situation where there are so many codes and levels to consider in how she depicts her image. So for an evening event she'll want to wear a glamorous dress and shoes.

"After all, if you're a woman travelling for business, you're going into an office where there will be other women who all look the part, too.

"The difference is that they live in that city so they're not compromised on a choice of outfits.

"So it is much harder for women who are travelling." Nevertheless, Davenport agrees with self-confessed "carry-on queen" Simone: "Remember just one word," Simone says. "Co-ordinate!"

Ann-Maree Moodie is the managing director of the Boardroom Consulting Group.