always come prepared. What if your laptop dies? What if their is only one person and it becomes a more intimate coffee like setting and you are fumbling over a laptop in between you? Be ready for everything. Don’t expect an internet connection, don’t expect the right adapter to be there for your laptop. Bring anything you might need.
I once had a candidate come to an interview completely empty handed, not even a notebook to take notes. I asked him how he would like us to review his work to which he said “oh yea, can you pull up my website on your laptop?” … interview over. I mean it went on for 45 minutes but there was nothing this dude was going to say that was going to recover him from that. If you roll in like that your work better make my brain melt out of my ears it is so good, and it wasn’t anywhere near that level. People mess up the small stuff all the time. Am I going to have that guy present to the head of engineering or the CEO? “Hey my CEO can you pull open that PDF I sent you on your phone so we can talk through it…”
One last thought, physical things matter. A printed book stays on someone’s desk, gets passed around, maybe pops back up 6 months later. An email is gone.