Mack Harnden will take his first business trip since the no-liquids-in-your-carry-ons rule went into effect.
He’ll simply pack what he needs in his checked bags and do what he needs to do in Chicago.
Harnden, a consulting psychologist at Right Management in Overland Park, is like a lot of business travelers — and pleasure travelers, too, for that matter.
“I’m amazed there hasn’t been more of a negative reaction,” Harnden said. “People just seem to accept it.
“We’re not seeing a significant number of people saying, ‘I’m not going to fly.’ If there’s fear, I think the fear is internalized. Maybe they’re a bit more anxious, but we just haven’t seen a cutback in traveling, it doesn’t seem.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics says air travel was up 0.9 percent in the first five months this year over the same period a year earlier. More recent totals aren’t available yet.
But if this summer’s packed plane flights are an indicator, it’s the Mark Twain quote revisited: Reports of the death of business travel are premature.
To this day, Harnden notes, nothing has managed to replace the value of face-to-face business contact.
We’re well into the second decade of hearing about professionals who turn down promotions and other jobs that would require them to be away from home more often.
Yet the airports continue to be clogged with laptop-toting business travelers.
We’ve also heard for years that video-conferencing is making time-consuming and expensive business travel moot.
A survey by Wainhouse Research, conducted for InterCall, a video and teleconferencing company, this month found that such conferencing technologies were being used by about 70 percent of 750 business professionals surveyed.
Yet, at Right Management, as at many companies, Harnden said, video or teleconferencing is used mostly for internal meetings, not for external client contact.
Attendance at conventions of professional associations hasn’t flagged, either.
Today’s work world is characterized by frequent job changes, and workers are more aware than ever of the importance of networking with others in their field. Contacts made at conventions may be the ticket to a new job.
And proving that every problem creates an opportunity, the new airport baggage hassles have sparked a growth in luggage services.
The Luggage Club ( www.theluggageclub.com), for example, offers baggage pickup, shipping and delivery for corporate as well as pleasure travelers and persons with disabilities.
Todd Kempinger, president of the company, says the service is just one way to make air travel less stressful.
Now, about the problem of missing your kid’s back-to-school night or soccer game …
KC Star
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