Business travel — The social practices surrounding meetings

A considerable amount of travel domestically and internationally is undertaken by ‘briefcase travellers’ in the pursuit of business meetings. Such business travel is deemed costly to the economy. This paper examines the potential factors at work in the social construction of meetings and their associated travel. What are the different motivations and expectations in attending a meeting? What are the actual consequences (positive and negative) in attending? How can the organisation of a meeting impact upon the wider organisation of activity in time and space of the individuals involved? How does the process of meeting attendance, including travel, unfold? How might ICTs impact on the social practices associated with meetings? The paper offers a critical assessment of such issues that may underlie and influence the nature and extent of business travel. It goes on to define the notion of excess briefcase travel as a means to frame the challenge for policymakers, employers and employees in potentially reducing such travel and the associated research challenge to establish empirical understandings. The paper examines literatures from transport studies as well as other territories of social science including mobilities research.