Traveling for Business

When traveling for business, you want to make sure you travel light, stylish, and prepared. If you’re going 5 or 5000 miles, 1 day or 1 week, here’s a list of items and tips that will help you on your travels.

• Make sure you pack a wad of business cards to keep in contact with your clients and people you may meet
• Pack as light as you can keeping in mind you might have to go straight from your flight to a conference or a meeting. A very small rolling suitcase and a purse or briefcase should suffice.
• To help keep your load even lighter, try packing a tablet over a laptop. This will save you a lot of space and allow you to easily take notes in meetings and quickly present ideas and documents with your peers. You will also not have to worry about blowing out your laptop if traveling to another country where the voltage is different.
• Make sure you have all the technical items you need: cell phone, tablet, chargers for both, power adapters if traveling to other countries, and a Flash or external hard drive.
• Pack at least one business suit or dress, a formal outfit, and a casual outfit. This will allow for a variety of outings with your peers.
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  Hand Shake

  Take a little zippered pouch with you and make sure to save EVERY receipt, boarding pass, and ticket you have spent on your trip. If you don’t have a company credit card, you will need to file an expense report when you return and if you do not have the paperwork, it might prove a headache or loss of your personal money.

• While on your trip, make sure you take detailed notes of what is going on, so you can easily organize them and report back to your boss when you return.
• When at the meeting/convention, make sure to socialize not only during but after the business part as well. This will show your comradery as well as allow your peers a small glimpse into you as a person. People enjoy dealing with people more when they can know them on a personal basis. A sense of trust is more easily formed. Depending on your relationship with your peers, make sure to purchase at least one evening of activities or one round of drinks. Trust me, it is always appreciated.
• If you feel its appropriate, sometimes it is nice to bring your peers a little gift on your arrival. Especially if coming from another country, an interesting snack or something might be appreciated.
• Be sure to bring at least one book. You’ll be spending some time traveling and staring at computer screens all day can get tiring.
• Ladies be mindful of your shoes. Wear comfortable ones as much while traveling as possible so you do not end up hurting your feet. If you need to head to the meeting as soon as you get off your mode of transportation, make sure to have a nice pair of shoes handy or in your purse so you can switch into them easily and quickly.
• Ladies also be mindful of the country you are in. While you might be welcomed in the business world, you might not be invited to certain social events or be able to travel around the city freely on your own time and what you wear might raise a few eyebrows. Some cultures require women to be escorted by a man at all times and are treated in society at less of a standing than men. Usually this doesn’t apply mostly to western women, but just be careful and mindful of these cultural differences when traveling.
• In general, be mindful of the customs of the area you are in. In Japan it is common for business people to get very drunk. This certainly doesn’t mean that you will need to pass out on the street, but you aware that it could potentially be a long night, so you are able to pace yourself.
• If you feel its appropriate, it might be good if you are at a convention to Tweet or social network quotes or interesting happenings or announcements. This can provide some snippets of information to co-workers or friends while you’re away.

As always, happy and safe travels.