Inspect tours: 5 world cities in 8 days
We at goMICE regularly organise Inspirational journeys for our clients. For 40 top entrepreneurs working within one of the best and most well-known retail chains in the Netherlands, we were given the honour of organising a retail trip to Asia. We always start this type of assignment with an inspection trip. In this first blog, I’d like to explain how we approach this.
Singapore – Taipei – Shanghai – Tokyo – Seoul
The inspection trip took in no fewer than 5 world cities in Asia over 8 days. The aim was to select 3 or 4 cities and combine them into a challenging and high-quality programme. A very fine assignment which we are happy to invest our energy and expertise in.
How do you approach organising such an inspection trip?
In this first blog, I'll take you through the preparation process up to the inspection trip, but in the following blogs, I'll naturally give you all the insights from the beautiful cities of Singapore, Taipei, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Seoul. The trip will take place in the spring of 2017, and I will, of course, report on it in a final blog.
Preparation process when organising an inspection visit
The preparation process is about questions such as:
- What is the purpose of the trip?
- Where does the relevance and the parallel lie for the entrepreneur and their organisation?
- What are you looking at in terms of transport and accommodation?
- How do you maintain energy levels?
- And most importantly: how do you make this journey an unforgettable experience?
A good preparation is half the battle!
This starts with a good briefing with the client and essentially boils down to:
- What does the customer want to get out of it?
- Which retail and also food chains in Asia are similar and relevant to visit?
We then look not only at the product range, but also at:
- Type of furnishing
- lighting
- Store routing
- Location relative to traffic / public transport gateways
- positioning formula
- food and non-food share
In short, we are not just walking into a high street and having a look around, but are thoroughly researching the interfaces, opportunities and threats of foreign chains for the Dutch market.
Experts working with Experts
Given our own retail background, we can get quite far with the briefings, but we also like to enlist the help of experts in our network. For this trip, for example, we are working with Pim van den Berg (www.perspectives.nlPim van den Berg is a “strategist” and a global citizen who is of great value in opening entrepreneurs' eyes during their journey. For example, as early as 2010, we saw that the retail chain Uniqlo from Japan would become a major player but was still relatively unknown in Europe. By now, everyone knows Uniqlo.
Transport, accommodation & energy of a group
Crucial for a successful trip is monitoring the group's energy levels. After all, the goal is inspiration and creating an unforgettable experience!
Transport and accommodation are therefore of great importance. The bus is used a lot by many agents, but we moved away from that years ago. A warm and slow bus in a city is truly worthless. It is much more enjoyable to travel by public transport. It is often very efficiently arranged and you can travel all day with one ticket.
On top of that, you immediately feel the atmosphere and the “vibe” of the city and its people. You remain alert, active and immediately get to know the city's logistics! Besides all these advantages, there's another one that is often forgotten: public transport is cheap and we all love that, don't we?
So the group's itinerary is decisive, we'll adapt the logistics accordingly. We'll only look for a comfortable hotel last, one that's clean and has a good bed. The hotel must be near Central Station or a busy tube station.
Lastly, the restaurant is sought out. Always eating locally is a must, but an evening of something a bit more European is also not a bad idea. A requirement, however, is that the restaurant must always be within walking distance of the hotel. That's lovely after a busy day in the city, and you can decide for yourself whether to linger over drinks or not, without everyone having to wait for each other!
An inspection trip: an unforgettable experience
If the preparation is good, the logistics are in order, the hotel is comfortable and the restaurants are within walking distance of the hotel, only then is there really time to enjoy all the beauty that the city has to offer. There is then also really time to reflect not only on the retail to be explored, but also on the cultural “landmarks” of a city. After all, a city lives and moves around its unique characteristics, so a visit to 101 Tower in Taipei or the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo should always be part of the itinerary!
If the energy is good, the atmosphere only improves and people become more and more open to exploring and embracing a new world. That mix of impressions ultimately leads to an unforgettable experience!
So far the preparation of this inspection trip.
In my next blog, I'll be taking you to the dynamic Singapore, the smallest country in Southeast Asia, which consists of 63 islands and has 5.3 million inhabitants!