Find The Boots

Rantings from a few corporate types about life, technology, travel, guns, politics, and everything good in the world.

Location Location Location ... For A Meeting

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Reader Extricks writes in with this nugget:

If you ever get stuck with having to set up an international meeting here is some advice.

Working for a global corporation that has a significant proportion of middle and senior managers that are "professional meeting attenders" finding a suitable meeting location is becoming more difficult. "Suitable" in this sense means somewhere different enough to excite the jaded palette of the key execs needed to make the meeting successful and yet equipped with every known comfort, technology, cuisine and entertainment.

My recommendation is to go with ex-soviet block countries. To most American attendees these are still bleeding edge locations and therefore exciting. And if you choose Prague, Budapest or Talin you get all the western European amenities with the much lower service costs of eastern Europe. Eating out is particularly good and inexpensive. Plus the female population in these cities appear to be all incredibly attractive. Oh, you also get thousands of years of culture and history.
You also get a significant "Boots" benefit on your return as receipts in Czech, Hungarian or Estonian are almost impossible decipher, thus making that box of Cuban Cigars become a dinner meeting with the local rep.

All good points, but we must point out that the service level in these places is absolutely horrendous. The ex-Soviet block has a ways to go when it comes to bringing you a beer quickly.

On the other hand, when the toilets do actually work, there is none of this water conservation rubbish.

Extricks, for your valuable contribution to Booting, we present you with the Frequent Flyer Award of Crossed Silver Boots. And because of your most excellent suggestion around receipting, we are presenting it to you with the coveted crossed silver cigars.

0 Comments:

Find The Boots

An executive goes on a business trip. When he arrives, it's raining cats and dogs. To avoid ruining his shoes, he purchases a pair of galoshes for $15, which he expenses under "Misc." on his expense report. A week later, the accounting department rejects his expense report, with a post-it note that says that the company does not reimburse for items of clothing. The next trip, the executive turns in an expense report without the galoshes, but with a post-it note that says "FIND THE BOOTS!".