Small Meetings are the Future of Business Travel
If you’re anything like me, you do your best to plan each week and balance the number of meetings you attend with the amount of time required to accomplish your objectives. The battle between uninterrupted focus and the string of meeting requests is real. Before I go to bed each night, I check my phone to determine what time I need to wake up based on my meetings.
A few weeks ago, I had a chance to get off Zoom meetings and into a conference room for a couple of days. Our HRS Group US leadership team came together to meet and discuss how we better collaborate and align our respective teams. Led by best-selling author and our executive coach Kian Gohar, we focused on how to drive innovation into all aspects of our work. This small meeting was tightly run with an agenda prepared in advance and a strict adherence to listening to each other. Away from distractions and focused on problem-solving, our small meeting was a success.
When I speak with customers, I hear the same thing over and over again. Small meetings are the future of business travel! Business travel is no longer all about meeting with customers and prospects, rather it’s about meeting with your teams!
Did you know that GBTA | Global Business Travel Association’s latest 2023 Travel Index survey revealed that now less than 60% of a corporations’ travel spend is on traditional business travel (transient)? The rest? 5% is long-stay, 5% is workforce and nearly 30% is meetings! Of the total meetings, nearly 70% is unmanaged!
Why?
The answer is simple. Most travel programs, service providers and technology can’t handle booking small meetings well. This problem is amplified by shrinking office footprints around the country and geographically dispersed employees. These teams need to come together and meet and discuss and challenge each other and use white boards and post-it notes and most importantly build relationships and teamwork.
If you find yourself meeting with colleagues from around the world, all calling the hotel directly, signing contracts for meeting space via Docusign, emailing information on AV costs and approving lunch menus via PDFs…then take a look at HRS Stay, Work & Pay instead. We’re building really special technology that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. The interest we’re hearing from customers is off the chart!
If you’d like to know more about how our platform is making it easier to book small meeting spaces and reserve blocks of hotel rooms for you and your colleagues, let me know. Look for announcements soon on the companies we’re working with to debut this.