MEETING INDUSTRY

Don’t Blame the Business Trip

Ben Stein fron NY Times writes about the realities and impacts of business travel.  Read an excerpt below

... The truth is that business meetings are usually not a waste of time, even if they are held in Las Vegas or at a resort with a golf course near a Southern California beach. They are not decadent, with rare exceptions. And at the business meetings I see, an incredibly heavy burden of work lies on the shoulders of those who attend. Of course, I wouldn’t want to see taxpayer money going to buy Piper-Heidsieck for executives of bailed-out companies. Then again, I never see anything even slightly like that at business meetings.

At the gatherings I attend, men and women fly coach, stay in immense, boxy hotels, start their meeting days at breakfast at 7 a.m. and work through the day until far later than seems reasonable to me. Then they do it again the next day and the day after that, finally enduring the torture of waiting at the airport, next to screaming children, in order to get home.

These meetings, while burdensome, are helpful to the businesses involved. They cannot be entirely replaced with teleconferencing or mass e-mailing. The personal touch, the sharing of facts and secrets face to face, are important. Could Congress really do its work if it held its sessions by teleconferencing? Could Congressional committee hearings work as well by conference call? Could the Supreme Court?   

Technology is wonderful and indispensable. But for finding out the tricks of the trade, the way business runs in bad times and good, the latest developments in business and the economy, nothing can replace the spark of intelligence that travels from person to person at meetings.  Moreover, it would be harsh in the extreme to kick the hospitality industry when it is down by frowning on business meetings, thereby making hotels lay off cooks and waiters and maids.