HP Innovation Issue 17: Spring 2021 | Page 77

Traveling for work looks very different now .

According to the Institute of Travel Management , more than a third of corporate travel managers expect to reduce corporate travel by 50 % to 70 % in 2021 .

“ The landscape has permanently been altered ,” says Darrell M . West , a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution ’ s Center for Technology Innovation , and author of The Future of Work : Robots , AI , and Automation .

But the needs of businesses haven ’ t changed : Salespeople still need to showcase products to customers , global organizations still need to facilitate face time between colleagues in different parts of the world , and professionals still need to hear from industry thought leaders .

To adapt to a world without frequent travel , international conferences and events such as the World Economic Forum and CES have moved to online formats , meetings happen over videoconferencing platforms , and businesses are tapping into new tools and technologies to stay connected . A Wall Street Journal report predicts tech alternatives adopted during the pandemic — and their associated cost savings — could end up cutting business travel by 36 % over the long term .

“ People have discovered [ that tech is ] cheaper and more convenient ,” says West . “ A lot of people are not going to go back to the previous way of doing things .”

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