One of my pictures on Flickr has been included in the Fourth Edition of the Schmap online guide to Venice.

Linkage right here.

No, it’s business trips. What do they, and why?

Take yesterday, for example – Upside: I didn’t have to go into the office. Downside: the cab picked me up at 3:30 am GMT and I didn’t get to my hotel until 4pm EST. And there’s the return trip on Friday (pickup at 2:30 am, arrive home at midnight).

OK, it makes for a 3-day working week; something I’d happily campaign for. However, the early starts, the endless hours spent breathing everyone elses (admittedly recycled) waste gases and more importantly, the time away from my family make me question the whole reason behind these trips. Incidentally, the guy sitting next to me was flying London – Houston for an afternoon’s meeting, then flying back.

In this day of super-fast communications/video conferencing/VOIP* (*insert your preferred technology of choice here), do we really need business trips?

Or are they just an excuse for a jolly on the company’s time and money?

Discuss.