Developing strong relationships is an important part of doing business. People are more inclined to become and remain customers once a certain degree of familiarity and congeniality is reached between the two parties.

Bonding with customers and suppliers is something that should be a priority as it’s a key component for closing deals. Price isn’t everything. But when pricing is the same or similar, and two companies are competing for one account with similar products and capabilities, it’s a no-brainer for the buyer to go with the salesperson who is also considered a friend.

Successful sales professionals of course know all of this. It should come as no surprise to learn that in a recent Forbes Insights survey of more than 750 business professionals, eight out of 10 said they preferred face-to-face meetings over technology-enabled virtual meetings. Respondents said, “Face-to-face meetings build stronger, more meaningful business relationships while allowing better social opportunities to bond with clients and coworkers. It is also easier to read body language and facial expressions and interpret nonverbal communication signals.”

In the label industry, the importance of in-person gatherings transcends handshakes and small talk. Converters need to see and feel equipment and materials before making crucial investment decisions. They need to compare and contrast the machinery that will drive their business into the future. In the end, though, the person demonstrating the machine or describing the substrate will indeed be a factor in a deal being closed.

Business, like life, is all about human connection.

The Covid-19 pandemic put a real wrinkle in the ability to establish, maintain and grow these human connections. The pause button was hit – hard, and it’s still hit for some – but for many, the time has come, as the legendary Willie Nelson sings, to “get on the road again.”

“Return to a World Transformed”
Before you start packing your bags and ransacking the office looking for your passport, business cards, and the creature comforts you schlep through airports and hotels, let’s stop for a moment and assess the situation. Things are not magically going to be just like they were – times have changed.

As we emerge from the pandemic, Deloitte, said to be the world’s largest professional services firm, has published the findings of its extensive research on the state of business travel in a report titled “Return to a World Transformed.”

The report says that, as of August 2021, conferences and trade shows remain mostly virtual, many offices are still closed, and companies are finding it hard to ask employees to take work trips.

“These conditions are temporary though,” Deloitte says. “Conferences and other industry events have begun their comeback, in live and hybrid formats, which will accelerate in the fall of 2021. Some workers returned to offices in summer 2021, and more will do so this fall. The eventual scale and shape of these staples of corporate life are unclear, but they are returning, and an uptick in corporate travel will follow.”

Acknowledging the success many companies experienced through a year of essential-only travel while leveraging virtual platforms like Zoom and Slack, business leaders realize the value of face-to-face interaction. And according to Deloitte, “Similar to the return to office-based work, road warriors fall on all points of a spectrum: from eager to return to airports, hotels and conference rooms, to convinced they can do their work effectively with significantly less travel.

“The reality falls somewhere in between,” Deloitte reports. “Competition and growth imperatives will necessitate a resumption of business travel. But travel use cases have been re-evaluated based on their impact on the bottom line and the environment, as well as how well they can be replaced by now widely adopted tech platforms.”

This fall, many companies plan to accelerate their return to offices. Travel managers have identified this shift, especially clients’ return to the office, as a top trigger for travel, Deloitte says. With regard to employees with children at home, resumption of in-person learning and traditional school-day hours will also make travel more convenient.

Many conferences are scheduled to return to a live or hybrid format, but will take place with attendance well below 2019 levels, according to the report. However, about a third of Deloitte’s surveyed companies say travel spend will remain below 25% of 2019 levels and two-thirds below 50%. “Barriers to international travel could start reducing by this time, easing the quarantine burden of visiting countries in Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. But corporate travel will remain largely domestic, with international trips limited to essential and client-requested travel.”

Labelexpo Europe in Brussels makes its much-anticipated return in 2022, though it will be in April and not the usual late September slot. Here’s what Deloitte says about what we can expect at that time: “Spring will bring more confidence and more competitive pressure to get in front of clients and prospects. A second season of live and hybrid industry conferences should enjoy better attendance than in fall 2021. Barriers to international travel should continue to come down, but cross-border trips will lag far behind domestic trips. Concerns about the risk and inconvenience of crossing borders will continue to drag down traffic on transatlantic routes, and Asia will remain difficult to visit. International industry events will bring back live formats but struggle to attract overseas attendees. Additionally, Covid-19 outbreaks that would cause little concern for domestic travelers could result in a higher rate of cancellations for international trips.”

In other words, there are no guarantees and the situation will remain fluid. However, the good news (or bad, depending on if you actually want to travel), is that Q3 and Q4 of 2022 will bring us closer to what will be the “new normal,” which is certainly not “business as usual.”

The Deloitte survey reveals,“Conferences will continue to evolve as organizers work to create formats that maximize return on in-person interaction while integrating technology to enable virtual participation. The majority of surveyed companies are optimistic that their travel spend will reach 2019 levels by this time – nine in 10 expect to be at or above 75%. Just over half of the respondents expect to return within three years to 2019 spend levels.”

In the label industry, in-person events – especially exhibitions/trade shows – are very important, in large part for the opportunities they present to see running equipment, but also because of the networking aspect.

According to Deloitte, “Companies rate exhibitions, and networking-heavy conferences, as very important to business success. Survey respondents rated missing out on conferences and trade shows during the pandemic as very impactful to their business, especially as those events provided networking opportunities.

“But these forms of travel are unlikely to lead the corporate travel comeback. Close to 60% of respondents say they expect to spend less on attending trade shows and conferences in 2022 compared to 2019…lack of clarity around which events will be held in-person in 2022 may be partly to blame. But additionally, companies have decided virtual attendance can replace some in-person attendance.”

A stabilized global health situation by the end of 2022, Deloitte says, will have business travel in the US beginning to settle into the “new normal.” Part of this new normal will be influenced by cost savings on travel – one of the few silver linings to the pandemic – and also what’s being seen as an increased interest in environmental sustainability.

Deloitte concludes, “Controlled travel growth will also contribute to another goal that has grown in importance in corporate America: reducing carbon emissions. Bottom-line and environmental priorities will be supported by technology and behavior changes brought on by more than a year of virtual-only meetings and events. The embrace of tech platforms for meetings and collaboration will mitigate the need for certain trips, and these platforms will continue to evolve to better meet some of the needs that travel used to fill.”


Steve Katz is former editor of Label & Narrow Web and is now a regular contributor. He is focused on helping companies in the label industry share their news and tell their stories. Follow him on twitter @LabelSteve.