BA tries to keep entrepreneurship alive

British Airways has launched a multi-phased programme that aims to keep entrepreneurship alive and kick up fresh potential for economic growth in the U.S. by focusing on tangible, human connections as a crucial driver of business growth.

Called Face-to-Face, the programme will offer more than 1,000 business people the opportunity to travel overseas and conduct face-to-face business meetings that will potentially result in deeper partnerships, contracts and revenue for U.S. cities.

BA stated that anyone with a demonstrable business need can visit www.ba.com/facetoface for the chance to win a free flight on one of three wide-bodied airplanes that will depart this fall from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago headed for business and networking opportunities overseas.

Simon Talling-Smith, executive vice president Americas for British Airways said face-to-face interaction fuels business, human connections matter, and it is from those connections that business flows. 

“Everyone must do their part to get business moving again, and the Face-to-Face campaign will connect U.S.-based entrepreneurs with new opportunities that would not have been realised if people did not make the trip,” Talling-Smith said.

British Airways commissioned a survey of Harvard Business Review readers to gauge perceptions within the international business community about the importance of face-to-face meetings. In preliminary results from a survey of more than 2,200 Harvard Business Review subscribers, 95 percent said they believe that face-to-face meetings are key to success in building long-term relationships, and 87 percent agree face-to-face meetings are essential for “sealing the deal”.

More than half of those surveyed said recent restrictions on business travel have hurt their business.