With global meeting and event production, of course, comes the challenge of travel logistics, but they don’t have to be a hurdle in your planning process. Here are some of the best ways we plan ahead for traveling to an event abroad:
- Make sure to factor in the time changes when traveling to your destination. Leaving the USA, you can lose half a day flying to Europe or more than a day when flying to Southeast Asia.
- Missing show day is not only your client’s worst nightmare but yours as well. Plan to arrive at least a day before your event so a delay or cancellation won’t keep you from show day. Additionally, arriving an extra day beforehand will help your team become acclimated to the time zone of the host country.
- Double-check your passport. In the buzz of event planning, it can be easy to forget the small things that factor hugely into the success of your travel. Make sure your passport is valid for six months before and after your trip and apply for any necessary visas. If you want to be really thorough, keep printed copies of your passports, visas, and ID’s stored in your hotel room’s safe in case any of your documents are stolen or lost.
- Before traveling, make sure to know where you will pass through customs. For layovers in a third-party country (not your origin or your destination), you often will not have to pass through customs, just a normal security checkpoint. However, Europe is a little different. If your final destination is part of the Schengen Area (which is most of Europe, including not EU members such as Switzerland) you will pass through customs in the first Schengen country you arrive in. It’s always good to double check this before booking flights with short layovers!
- Refer to the US State Department Travel website (www.travel.state.gov) for helpful and up-to-date information on entry requirements for individual countries and any travel warnings that exist.
While the process of producing an event abroad can be challenging for some, the fact that Tri-Marq follows the same pre-production methods both locally and globally keeps stress low for everyone.
