Business Travel in Recession
I am a LIVE blogger and I get invited to many a conferences and events in the industry across India to LIVE blog the entire events.
And since quite sometime I have been hearing from many an Event organizers that due to recession, Business Travel has been restricted, thus expecting huge turnout at any conference is a challenege today!
I am sure this is one concern many a Conference organizers would agree to!
Well, so what is the solution to this problem?
Let me say I cannot monetarily give you an alternative that you should not attend any conferences, as these are some of the best grounds to network and reach out to existing and potential business partnerships. You can get new talent for your company, you get a platform to share your expertise on various agendas relevant to the community.
If there are so many benefits and still you have to see how much can you spend on your travel to attend these conferences?! What do you do then?
Social Media comes to Rescue
To the rescue is Social Media! Yes!
Now that you cannot afford to lose the chance of being in these conferences, well you can definitely work towards making sure that you can make the most of your business trip.
There are several tools on the internet which can help you arrange your travel and connect with people in the city you are visiting and also with the people who are attending the conference, so you can connect with the relevant people and break ice much before you actually meet them at the conference.
Social Media Tools to Get the most of your Business Travel
Explore your professional network on Linkedin to know who all in your network are attending a conference that you are and who all are there in the city at that particular moment of time and day.
Before reaching the designated city, you can connect with these people and pre-schedule meetings, to make the most of your travel. All you needd to do is add the Application (Tripit) on your Linkedin profile.
Twitter is a tool where you can subtly announce that you are going to attend a conference and people who are there in your network who may be visiting the same would tweet back and there you go, you connect with the relevant community of people, thereby increasing your chances of creating more possibilities for yourself in your travel schedule.
Google Reader, well yes I know you would say Google Reader? Yes, its pretty simple! subscribe to the blog feeds of all the companies/people you are expected to meet at the conference/event you are going to. You would hence be updated with all the action points that you need to discuss and take your discussions forward in a more constructive manner.
Follow/Subscribe Events/conferences updates on dedicated Blogs like – OMShare
I confess, there is a self promotional aspect in the following note, but it would be of a higher value to you than anything else! I along with one of the people I work with, created The First from India, Online Platform for Taking Events and Conferences Global (OMShare). Its a platform where I LIVE Blog some of the best conferences and events around uptill now only in India (though open to invites Internationally as well).
We would soon be integrating RSS Feeds letting our followers know at no cost and at not much time, which events are happening where and if they would be of value to you and your business. Also we are extending the platform to include event representatives and organizers who can further help you network with the who’s who attending the event.
Based upon this information you can take an informed decision of whether to attend the event or be negative!
If you wish to connect with me, I would be attending (LIVE Blogging) the following events in the coming future:
- The Web Usability and Design Workshop at India Habitat Center by TiE New Delhi on 7th March 9am-6pm
- The JFPS CORPORATE COMMUNICATORS’ CONCLAVE in Mumbai on 16th and 17th April
[...] the rest here: Social Media Travel Tools – Your Guide&#… Share and [...]