An all-too-familiar scenario: you are barbecuing in your backyard when a neighbor leans over the fence to chat. One thing leads to another, and your neighbor asks, “What are you up to this week?” You reply, “Oh, I have to go to Barcelona to manage my company’s trade show at Fira Barcelona.” Your neighbor looks at you with unabashed envy. “I love Barcelona! What a wonderful city! I like to eat tapas, walk along Las Ramblas, and take in Gaudí’s architecture. You’re so lucky!”
You smile tentatively, agreeing with your neighbor. In your mind, you are thinking about all the headaches associated with trade show travel, which is light-years away from leisure travel. And you flash back on all the headaches that you and/or your colleagues have experienced on the road, particularly when the road is in another country where, quite possibly, you and the citizens of the country have problems communicating.
Headaches? I’ve had a few—and yet too few to mention. Or not.
- Becoming ill on the road. In my case, not just ill—but contracting COVID in London, holed up in a hotel until…I had to change hotels. London had all the therapies for COVID that most Western countries had, but if you had COVID, you know that there is little to do but wait it out in a hotel.
- Passports and Visas, Digital and Paper—oh my! A designer friend in the US was ready to attend EuroShop in Düsseldorf this year, so excited to see what was new and trending. One thing his plans didn’t include was checking the expiration date of his passport. If you are planning to travel less than six months before the expiration date, forget it! In three years, when EuroShop happens again, I have the feeling he’ll check that date.
- I don’t want to mention jet lag because that’s like admitting it exists. Living in Japan means jet lag is a fact of life for me. Do you know how many people tell me I look tired on a given day? I stopped counting. Every travel newsletter offers advice on how to conquer jet lag; in my experience, nothing works. How about you?
- Ever have tech issues while traveling? Did you ever call down to the front desk to ask when the internet would be back? You travel with a universal adapter and charger, and you have a VPN—but as prepared as you are, there are too many possibilities to kick you offline—or worse, to pick up a virus while you are working at a café.
- And then there is electricity. We are used to reaching for hairdryers, curling irons, travel irons, and similar devices. Be prepared to deal with 220 volts. Check your settings; some items have a switch to toggle between 110 and 220. Of course, there are more issues than your personal travel items. Everything in your booth needs to be plugged in. At Idea International, we work with electricians to ensure we make all the right “connections” for our clients.
- A friend was traveling to Rome for a long summer weekend before their show opened. We all know better than to check bags, but we mostly know that because we’ve had what, in the real world, amounts to a crisis. The code for Rome is FCO, and the code for Frankfort is FRA. Same thing, right? As if! The luggage went to Frankfort, but did I mention it was a holiday weekend? Not only was there a predictable slowdown at the airports, but closings in Rome limited shopping. Now, even with AirTags, getting a lost bag at an airport is challenging.
- When clients work with us, one of the first things we warn them about are the holidays in the APAC region. For example, the Lunar New Year lasts 3 weeks, and work stoppages can range from 2 to 7 days. Do you know about Golden Week in Japan? Or Diwali in many countries? And the Muslim holidays like Ramadan? Culture is very important. If you are working with Muslim clients, they will fast from dawn to sunset during Ramadan, so don’t plan on lunch. Before you book your flight to an APAC country, check the holidays because work and workers slow down, and your trade show booth will have to wait.
- Debit cards have eliminated the need to carry a lot of local currency, but you will still need some for tipping and for places and people that accept only cash. Get your cash from a local ATM; whatever you do, do not exchange currency at the airport! This is a rookie mistake that we have all made at least once.
- There are now apps that help with language barriers. Find the one you like. In Europe, English is spoken widely. One time, I was in a Portuguese restaurant in Amsterdam. The customers attempted to order in either Dutch or Portuguese—I was too far away to hear—but I did hear the waiter say, “Please speak English.” In my experience, younger people—and particularly kids—like to practice their English on English speakers. You can have fun with the interchange.
- Burnout is real. Even if you are healthy, you are jetlagged, your digestive system doesn’t know what hit it, you have way too much email when you get home because the internet was wonky, and so on. Even when things go exceptionally well at your event, you might find yourself a little cranky. Take the time you need to decompress. You might even want to tell your neighbor about your “exciting” travels!
PS: When you work with Idea International, we do our best to minimize your headaches! That’s why our motto is, “Peace of Mind-Half a World Away.”
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