Traveling

5 Reasons Business Travel Is A Necessity in the Information Age

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If you think Google Hangouts or Skype sessions can replace face to face meetings successfully, think again. In one study of 750 business executives, 8 out of every 10 said that they preferred face to face interactions to tech alternatives. Even though the information age makes virtual meetings a possibility, they are not equal to in person meetings. Here are 5 reasons that business travel is still a necessity, even though we have the tech to make online meetings possible.

1. Face to face interactions help people develop long lasting, personal relationships.

When you have a meeting in a virtual space, it is tempting to think of the people on the screen as just a part of the work day. You don’t take time out for personal conversations or emotional check-ins. This leaves a considerable communication gap, and relationships start to lack depth. In contrast, meetings held in person allow for personal communication, emotional sharing, and a feeling that the encounter stands out from the routine work of the day.

2. Business travel gives the opportunity for social time.

You can’t spend twenty-four hours a day in meetings. Inevitably, you need to eat, sleep, drink, and recreate. When you travel for business, you just might do one of those social activities with one of the people you have ongoing business with. Relating on topics other than pure work is very healthy for your relationship! Eating a meal out together, or going for a hike as a team might just build more trust than signing a contract.

3. Learn about the culture that your business is immersed in.

The information age allows us to conduct business with people all over the world. Communications fly around the globe in seconds. However, if you merely fire off emails to people all over the globe, without considering culture, you will be missing a large body of information. Cultural clues can help you build stronger business relationships, produce better products, and gain a better reputation. Business travel helps to introduce you to the culture of the people that you are working with.

4. Networking is more successful in person

One study showed that 72% of people engaged in networking were influenced by the looks that they received, or the feel of a handshake. Can you shake someone’s hand online? No. Powerful social cues like the grip of a handshake are passed on in person, not online.

5. Travel provides and opportunity for teams to bond

Groups of coworkers traveling together face new experiences as a team, which is a bonding activity. When people are in their familiar zones, like a home office, they will be less likely to make an effort to bond to others. But when people travel together they are removed from the usual comforts and distractions of home, and this frees up time and space for them to get to know one another.

After the recession, many business owners stopped traveling, and relied on virtual meetings instead. This saves money, but ultimately harms relationships. Business travel is vital to business success. If budgeting is an issue, consider getting a small loan.

Narin Charan, founder and CEO of Capital Alliance, started providing business loans to small businesses as the recession of 2008 hit. He wanted to help small businesses thrive, even while their access to funds was temporarily decreased doe to the state of the economy. Small business loans can keep business travel from being sacrificed in the name of sticking to a budget. This is important because of the rewards of the face to face meetings that come out of business travel. Among those rewards are long lasting relationships, team bonding, cultural awareness, and more successful networking.

The Value of Fantastic Photography

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Photography is practically everywhere you look these days. If you’re on your mobile device looking at websites, you probably see images galore. If you’re shopping at a local mall looking for a new outfit, you probably see advertisements that are chock-full of pictures everywhere you walk as well. It’s impossible to dispute how omnipresent photography is in this day and age. If you have any interest in photography whatsoever, you probably understand its value. Terrific images can be extremely powerful.

Photographs make strong communication tools. They express our values, goals and hopes for the future. They’re 100 percent irreplaceable, too. If you look around at all of the possessions you own, you probably have a few jewelry pieces that make you happy. If you were ever pressed to limit your belongings, however, you may find yourself turning to your photography albums. “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Photography has no competition in that department. If you want to look at something that can convey meaning that’s sometimes beyond your comprehension, you should gaze at a photograph. Photographs truly are evocative.

Photography can give you a close look at history. It doesn’t matter if you’re staring at a billboard for a popular carbonated beverage or if you’re looking at a photograph of a family member in your living room. Photographs are in many ways little slices of history. If you want to be able to remember past years and decades, a glimpse at a photograph can help you do so. Photographs can take you back to earlier times and emotions. They can help you take trips down memory lane. If you’re searching for a professional photographer who genuinely understands how to capture the past and nostalgia, you should look straight at Matthew David Parker. Parker is a skilled photographer who has an eye for history and the passing of time.

Photography is valuable because people can’t replace it. You can try to replace a photograph all you want. The reality, however, is that you can never actually accomplish your goal. If you try to emulate a flattering image of yourself from a few weeks or days ago, you’ll quickly realize that it will never look exactly the same. Something will always be slightly or significantly different. You may not be able to document the same smile intensity. Your hair may look totally different. The overall feel of the image may be somewhat “off” as well. Photography is a stunning art form in that it’s always unique.

Photography can add a lot of visual appeal to anything. Website design that lacks imagery can be extremely dull. If you want to create a user-friendly business website that keeps visitors engaged and interested, it’s always a smart idea to go for appropriate visuals. People sometimes frown upon the idea of reading substantial text blocks. Text can tire their eyes easily. Images, however, can be welcome breaks for them. If you want the people who visit your website to actually enjoy the process, the addition of photographs can help in a big way.

The photography universe is an intriguing one. It changes all of the time. If you take your focus off it for a brief period of time, you could miss out on a lot. It’s exciting and fast-paced. New cameras are released to the public all of the time. They always come with modern and updated features and abilities that are hard to ignore as well. There are so many reasons to love photography. Photography is something that isn’t going anywhere any time soon. It’s only going to become more and more ubiquitous.

Marlon Kobacker on Raising Awareness of Sustainable Travel Practices

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Marlon Kobacker Travel PracticesAs a sustainable design expert who is now partnering with James Cronan on a new project called the Sustainable Future Group, Marlon Kobacker is quite aware of the most recent developments shaping the industry in which he has thrived for so long. While Kobacker is keenly aware of the many ways new sustainable technology and design can make it easier for consumers to make environmentally friendly choices in just about every endeavor they pursue, it is also an unfortunate truth that many of those same consumers are simply unaware of what is now available to them.

According to the recently released Sustainable Travel Report, the travel industry is in need of generating greater awareness of how consumers can make their vacation plans with sustainability in mind. The study indicated that the primary reason travelers did not make the choice to stay in eco-friendly and sustainably designed accommodations was due to nothing more than a simple lack of awareness. It should be clear to the travel industry that making sustainable accommodations available is a step in the right direction, but the increased availability will not yield the intended result without an effective marketing campaign in place.

Kobacker, a longtime proponent of the need for significant progress in sustainable design implementation across all industries, felt that one of the more notable aspects of the Sustainable Travel Report concerned the lack of any standard definition regarding the term “sustainable” as it is applied to travel. Through educational efforts carried out by the travel industry and other groups, the public can become better informed on all aspects of sustainable travel while also learning that eco-friendly accommodations are not necessarily more expensive or less luxurious. As many have pointed out already, the opposite is actually more likely to be true.

John Pryor Travels to Japan for the Japan Rugby Football Union

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The director of JointAction and the strength and conditioning coordinator for the Japan Rugby Football Union, John Pryor has devoted the entirety of his professional career to generating a broader understanding of health and wellness principles in the minds of an incredibly wide range of individuals, whether that is elite athletes, office workers or anyone else. To John Pryor, rugby athletes need a great deal of specificity in their training program, and since the same is true in occupational health settings, Pryor has made a concerted effort to develop educational materials and technology-based solutions with the goal of achieving a greater degree of injury prevention while simultaneously improving overall health and wellness.

Pryor’s experience in international athletics includes three years spent as a consultant and a strength and conditioning coach with the Australian Rugby Union, and after a successful run with the Wallabies he accepted his current positions with JointAction and the Japan Rugby Football Union. Pryor has remained deeply committed to continuing research and education throughout his professional career, and his appreciation for the value of these continuing efforts largely began during an academic career at Southern Cross University and the completion of a master’s degree in biomechanics.

Though Pryor has experienced a tremendous run of success with both the Japan Rugby Football Union as well as JointAction, he has nonetheless remained completely committed to developing new principles and strategies to improve the training programs he utilizes in his professional roles. This lack of complacency is at least partially responsible for his ability to develop innovative training methodologies and to achieve such impressive training outcomes, and it is for this reason that both JointAction and the Japan Rugby Football Union are confident in the direction they are headed through Pryor’s exceptional guidance.

Bora Bora Reviewed By Dr. Raouf Farag

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Today, I’m having my good friend Dr. Raouf Farag shares his favorite vacation spot with us:

St Regis Bora Bora

St Regis Bora Bora

Known worldwide for its scuba diving and turquoise waters, Bora Bora is a tiny French Polynesian island located in the South Pacific. The island is overlooked by Mount Otemanu, a dormant volcano situated in the center of the island. Bora Bora is the quintessential lagoon environment, with sandy beaches, clear skies, and plenty of grass-roofed bungalows. The island is synonymous with vacations and honeymoons, and has a relaxed vibe. The island, though very small, feels vast with its beautiful views.

Popular activities on the island include swimming, windsurfing, snorkeling, sea kayaking, and sea kayaking. For the adventurous, there are hundreds of nearby islands to explore and plenty of beaches to experience.

Accommodations for guests on the island include everything from straw huts to luxury hotels.

Several of the island is four and five-star hotels are set up as over-water bungalows and beach villas. These include The Bora Bora 4 Seasons Resort and the St. Regis Bora Bora Resort. Sleeping in one of these bungalows is a unique experience that is hard to explain to someone who hasn’t tried it. Some include sections of the floor made of glass, allowing you to see underwater below your feet. Others include luxury baths with a view of the ocean. Water is a main theme of the entire island. When you are not swimming in the ocean, you are usually in a heated pool or looking at a water view. The bungalows are unassuming on the outside, but truly luxurious on the inside. Swimming in the ocean at Bora Bora always includes beautiful views and clear water.

4 Seasons Bora Bora

4 Seasons Bora Bora

The food on the island is known for being fresh and expensive. Making your own food can save you money, but eating at restaurants on the island make every meal an experience and I don’t suggest you miss the opportunity. From the presentation of the food, to the unique seasonings, meals are unique and delicious.

Overall, I recommend a trip to Bora Bora, as it has been a beautiful experience and a relaxing time away from a stressful, yet rewarding, medical career. It doesn’t have Australia’s rough charm, but sometimes a softer tone can be nice. Trust me. I’m a doctor.

Stuart Lyall – Travel Expert

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I’ve been traveling around for a while, over 15 years to be exact, and what I’ve come to find is that no matter how many times I travel the world I always find something I have never seen before. The world is a big, big place, but isn’t it ironic how it’s also a small place at the same time? Especially thanks to social media and the Internet connecting us all together. Through my experiences of traveling, there a few “notes of wisdom” I am sure to always take with me when I ever do decide to venture out.

 

Bring enough cash. This has been my downfall many times and when you are somewhere you have never been surrounded by people you have never known, running out of cash is your probably your worst nightmare. As my father would always say, “You’re never lost as long as you have a full take of gas and a pocket of money.” I would have to highly recommend that you don’t keep all your cash in one place. For example, don’t have all your cash in your back pocket. I try to think of intense situations that could happen even though it’s likely they won’t. What if your back pocket is robbed by a quick pickpocket and they run off, disappearing into the crowd? There goes all your money. Put some in your bag, some in your front pocket too.

 

Meet the townspeople  simply because they are contain wisdom about the area you’re in. Talking to people in other countries isn’t like talking to people in big major cities where people are busy, in a rush, rude and have no time for you. You’ll find that talking to someone in another country, particularly in a small village, will grant you information and possibly a new friend. I always try to remember to step away from other travelers and get to know the locals. I guess I would call that the “Stuart Lyall courtesy policy.”

 

 

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