By Jim Cathcart, CSP, CPAE, Cavett Award Recipient

With 3,500 paid speaking engagements over the past 48 years, I have taken about 9,000 separate flights, including connections. I’ve stayed in over 3,000 hotels and taken a huge number of taxis, limos, private and Uber rides in places where I had never been before.

What are your travel numbers?

Isn’t it amazing how many variables we have to deal with in a speaking career?

Consider the decisions you have to make, and the steps required just to show up for a speech in good enough shape to do your very best.  Here are just a few of them:

• When will you depart? Will you need a day to adjust to time zones?
• How will you get to the airport or transport terminal?
• What will you need to take with you?
• What can you leave at home or in the office?
• Is the climate different there requiring wardrobe changes?
• How will people reach you while you’re gone?
• Will you check luggage or carry on? What must be with you and not checked?
• Can you send a PowerPoint file ahead, bring it on a USB drive, or do you need to bring your own laptop?
• Do you need to ship supplies ahead? To whom? How soon?
• Do you need a personal microphone, slide remote, cords, and adapters?
• Who is your contact person and what is their mobile number (for non-office hours)?
• Where will you stay? Is the room reserved in your name or theirs? Who is paying?
• Can you make flight changes, or did they buy the ticket?
• Should you take a non-stop flight or book the cheaper connecting flight?
• What will you do if caught in a long layover?
• Will you be greeted on arrival or take a taxi? What if your greeter is not there?
• Do you know the address of the hotel?
• Where is the meeting, at the hotel, or elsewhere? How will you get there?
• When do you need to be available for sound check or your first appearance?
• Who needs to know your status?

We could fill pages with the little decisions a speaker must make, just to give one speech.

Newer speakers often assume they can delegate much of their travel planning to an associate. But those associates don’t have to deal with the challenges you might face.

If your flight arrives late at night and the driver is not there to meet you, what do you do? Who do you call? What if you only have their office phone?

What if you don’t know the address of your hotel? How are you going to inform the Uber driver? Are there two hotels in the same area with similar names?

Once very early in my career, upon arrival in Denver late at night I was met with a note, “Hi Jim, welcome to Denver. I had to leave early so I can’t meet your flight. Just rent a car and I’ll see you at the meeting.”

Two problems:

1. I didn’t own a credit card and couldn’t rent a car. (As I said, this was long ago).

2. I did not know where the meeting was. (It was in Sterling, Colorado, almost three hours away from Denver. And I didn’t know which hotel)!

There have been worse scenarios over the years, but these were when I was new to business travel. Hard lessons to learn.

Since then, I have learned that only ONE person should be in charge of travel details…me. No, I don’t think you have to do everything yourself. Much of this can be delegated, but you must train your associates to be very meticulous, and you must personally double check it all. After all, you have to do the travel.

A colleague of mine, a veteran Hall of Fame speaker, once traveled to the east coast for a connecting flight to another country. Upon arrival at the departure gate, he discovered that his passport was still back home in California! He was not able to complete the trip. A lost opportunity and a lost client!

Assume that you are your own travel agent. You are in charge of all the details. Then you can train others to support you in various ways. Make checklists and use them. Travel can be a joy when the details are anticipated and prepared for. Enjoy your trip!

About the Author

Jim Cathcart, Cathcart.com is past president of the National Speakers Association and a veteran of over 3,500 paid speeches. He has served as Chair of the Board of Governors of the CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame, authored 27 books including What To Do When You’re The Speaker, and The Acorn Principle™. Jim is the founder of the Cathcart Institute, Professional Experts Academy. Cathcart is the person who crafted NSA’s Professional Competencies.