You’ve been informed that you will be facilitating a ‘road trip’, or meeting with another company within your industry in another city, or even country. Although you’re excited and happy of the opportunity given to you, you’re also scared of what will happen. This is your first time to facilitate your team to a meeting in another city or country, and you basically don’t have any idea what will happen. You still don’t have any idea of what you should and shouldn’t do to guarantee that this meeting and trip will be successful, not just for you but for your company. To help you out with your dilemma, here are some ways you can make ‘road trips’ a success:

Reach out

Some business partners have different preferences, it’s important that you’re able to meet all of these when they meet up with you. By calling ahead and reaching out prior to your arrival you can schedule time with everyone you want and need to. This goes along way to making your time as beneficial as possible. By doing your research online well in advance you can avail yourself of where best to base your team and where you can take your team should you be successful in hitting a goal you set them, like out-performing their previous week or the best team in the company you are visiting during your visit. The same goes for an international meeting with businesses all around the world.

Speak slowly

When you’ll facilitate an overseas visit (either to or from), keep in mind that you’ll be talking with people who might not have the same language as yours. Sure, they might understand the English language, and (fortunately for us) most countries have English as a second language these days, but there might be some terms which are uncommon to them. To ensure that everyone is on the same page during the meeting, speak slowly. This isn’t condescending, this will allow the participants to process what you’re saying and ask questions when there are words or terms vague to them. Highlight that you are happy to explain anything as you go along if there are any terms that are new to them so that no one feels reluctant to ask anything or speak up.

Be prepared

Regardless of how much you try to prepare for a meeting, there could be issues arise at the last minute. This can have adverse effects on the progress of your meeting or visit. You can avoid this from happening by coming up with your Plan Bs, and even Plan C. For example, you might have a place booked for a meeting but what will happen when participants inform you that they’ll be adding ten more participants? Are you prepared for emergencies like these?

Do your research

Don’t show up to the meeting being clueless about what will happen and try and cuff a meeting at the last minute. Regardless of what the meeting is all about – whether it’s about closing deals or hiring the best manpower services for your business – you should be prepared. You should REACH OUT and ask where the people you are meeting could improve on currently so your meeting is relevant and beneficial to them so they get the most out of it as possible. This  create an impression that you’re interested in helping them.

In Conclusion

When you facilitate a ‘road trip’ within the UK or overseas, or a visit/ meeting from a company to your own, it’s not as simple as the ones you’ll have with your office in the boardroom. For one, this is participated by people who have different opinions and backgrounds. Some traits might seem normal to you, but these might come off as offensive in people from different countries. This is just one of the reason why you should pour in time and effort to prepare for your travel and activities during your business trip.