HERE YOU are - a business dependent on the regional and global reach of your management, marketing and sales teams. Upon closer examination, well actually a quick chat with your financial controller, you discover that your combined cost of travel from logistics to ‘out of pocket’ expenses takes up 20 per cent of your annual turn-over. Now, tell me you’re a CEO who isn’t interested in saving on that?
The last 18 months have seen most of us face some of the most challenging times in our company’s history.
But as the strongest survive, the focus on customer retention and new business generation has become even greater. Perversely, it’s a time when travel and meetings become more, not less, important.
Now is the time to leave our comfort zones – our office, the company of our colleagues, our telephones, emails and Blackberrys – we need to meet our marketplace face-to-face and understand our customers, suppliers and products much better. This is how we establish stronger relationships and when we do this, business gets done and we move the company forward.
So if the answer is to continue travelling, there is also a new question – how do we make business travel expenditure more efficient without affecting our business process?
The Business Travel Show Middle East (BTSME) is the only dedicated event for managers who organise, arrange and buy travel on behalf of their organisation.
You’ll find all the leading travel suppliers showcasing their latest products and services, a two-day education conference advising how to create the best travel policy and a range of networking events, which will facilitate new contacts and best-practice sharing.
Whether you work for an SME, multi-national or global corporation, a visit to the Business Travel Show in October will enable you to return to the office with tonnes of new ideas on how to save your company time and money for the coming year. Now tell me your boss wouldn’t appreciate you for that?
The show takes place on October 25 and 26 at the Madinat Arena in Dubai, UAE.
By Paul Grinnall, event director