“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.”
– Lucius Annaeus Seneca
The aim of the economic missions is to create the conditions for businesses to cooperate with foreign partners and to establish or expand trade and business contacts.
In practice, economic missions involve:
- B2B meetings,
- study visits to company premises,
- additional activities such as:
– meetings with local business support institutions and companies (e.g. law firms)
– meetings with local authorities,
– meetings with the diplomatic mission.
A trade mission is nowadays the cheapest direct form of reaching a foreign business partner. This makes the mission not only a way to develop contacts, but also an opportunity to develop business in foreign markets.
The programmes of economic missions are extremely varied, usually including visits to foreign institutions and companies, business meetings, trade fairs, bilateral meetings.
Planning and organising such an intensive programme involves a great deal of work, time and no small degree of difficulty. This is the reason why companies do not organise missions themselves, but outsource them to specialists. The organiser’s task is to oversee logistical issues such as transport, accommodation, preparation of promotional materials, carrying out an analysis of market entry opportunities.
Trade missionsare divided into individual and collective. The former means that the location, number of people, programme and date of the trip are agreed individually with the company – the participant. The second type of mission is collective. It means that several companies or individuals from one industry take part in the trip. The programme, date and location of the mission are determined in advance by the organiser. Both missions allow you to benefit from the advantages of this form of promotion, but an individual solution is optimal. This is because they are tailored to the cognitive needs of the company.
