How to Plan a Business Trip – Part II

I wrote a post sometime back on how to plan a business trip. I had mentioned in passing that I would soon be writing a post that dealt with how to plan various events to attend during the

course of the trip. So how do you really go places(excuse the mild pun) during a business trip?

1. Have a clear objective as to what are the type of people you need to be meeting with.  Depending on that you need to choose your target locations and events.These can be networking events, seminars, conferences, referral meetings, unconferences, informal meetups, etc.

2. Plan in advance. Search for events in the cities which you are going to be visting. Some good resources include Meetup, Eventbrite, Upcoming, LinkedIn Events, Gary’s Guide, etc. From our personal experience, I would

definitely recommend Meetup. It’s an excellent resource.

3. When you send out your RSVPs, try to coordinate with the organizers of the event beforehand. This can be handy if you wish to make a presentation or a talk at a networking event, for instance.

4. Make sure you have just the right number of events lined up for a day. Time is a valuable resource when you are on a trip, but you don’t want to wear yourself out either. Also, you need to plan it right in order to meet up with existing clients, because hey, they are as much important(if not more) as prospects!

5. Lastly, a few pointers – give out business cards, be on time, be polite and listen to what others say. Request for 1-1 meetings and follow up with people.

Check out Chaitanya’s post on OpenForum to know more about how to make networking and referral events work for you. Do you have any interesting pointers from your own business trip experiences? Let us know!

How to plan a Business Trip

Chaitanya returned back to India from a 40 day business tour of the US. The trip was a good experience and all of us at p2w2 benefited greatly from what he had to share.

The success of a business trip is highly dependent on the amount of planning that you do beforehand. I’d like to share some insights and learnings that went into planning Chaitanya’s US trip.

1.Have a clear purpose

Make sure you know clearly what the end result of the trip should be(get new customers/expanding to a new geography/learning about new trends,etc). Plan your trip accordingly.

2. Decide the agenda of your trip well in advance

This is essential so that you can book tickets, hotel rooms in advance and thereby save money too. Make sure that you choose your place of stay wisely, so that you don’t spend valuable time commuting.

3. Chalk out events properly

If you’re looking to meet potential clients, attend

referral meetings. If you wish to know more about what is

happening in that geography, what are the new trends, etc. attend seminars and conferences.  But more about planning events and seminars, later!

4.Popularize your meetings

If you’re conducting meetings, plan in advance and make sure it is well publicized. Use tools such as Meetup, Eventbrite, Upcoming, etc. to create buzz around your events.

5. Tweet and blog your experiences!

I hope you found this useful. Keep checking our blog to know what kind of planning needs to go into attending seminars and events specifically!