Location, Location, Location
Recently someone asked me what location I would recommend for an international meeting. She had been in Paris for a meeting organized by her company and complained of the distance from the airport (aggravated by transport strikes in France this month) and the distance from downtown Paris. She had travelled a long way (from LA) and had participated in meetings while suffering jet-lag and had not been able to do anything “fun” in her free time.
Unfortunately, business travel and meetings are often like this. At least
one manager I know refers to his salary as “payment for damages”. That’s one way to see it - just grin and bear it. But with a little bit of extra effort, planners of international meetings can make the meetings more enjoyable, indeed even memorable.
Here are a few guidelines.
- Choose a location where your company has a facility and enlist local staff to help with the meeting organization, especially with the choices of hotel and evening “field trip” (more on this below).
- Pick a hotel that is not more than 30 - 40 minutes from an international airport. Optimally, the hotel should also be within an hours drive of the company’s local facility, since every meeting with international participation should include a tour of the local facility along with a short presentation of one of the best practices unique to that site.
- Organize an evening “field trip” for all participants. Hire a bus and take everyone to a local attraction or on a sightseeing trip. Enlist local staff or hire a tour guide to explain the history of the attraction.
- If you have been invited to an international meeting where no evening tours are planned, I recommend extending your stay by a day, moving to a hotel in the center of the city and touring on your own.
Enjoyable international meetings don’t need to be an exception! With a
little effort, we can all use these trips to increase our geocultural
literacy - and that’s good business!
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POSTED IN: Travel
1 opinion for Location, Location, Location
Chris
Dec 10, 2007 at 12:40 pm
While London and Paris are always safe in the sense that people can get there, other cities may well be cheaper and just as reachable. Check the direct flights for the local airports and see which ones they have in common - Philadelphia, for example, has direct flights to Munich and Glasgow, both of which are smaller and more manageable than London or Paris, but which are readily reachable from many places in the world.
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