As with so many colloquial phrases that have drifted into the business vernacular, the term ‘sounding board’ actually owes its origins to the church. Back before the days of electronic amplification, the first criterion for determining whether a preacher was any good was whether he could be heard in the far reaches of those vast cathedrals.
Most speakers, it turns out, needed a little help. Thus during the Renaissance, churches began to fix a flat wooden canopy above the pulpit which reflected the preacher’s voice throughout the sanctuary. By the early 1700’s, this device came to be called the sounding board. Of course, over time it became more ornamental than functional and its original meaning began to fade
Today the phrase is more abstract, giving rise to an entire vocabulary of idea creation. How often do we approach colleagues with, “Let me bounce something off you,” or “How does that sound?” We’re asking them to be sounding boards, to hear our ideas and listen to what’s reflected back, discovering fresh insight and even inspiration.
September is the month when the editorial team at Business Travel Executive puts the finishing touches on the calendar for 2017, taking the temperature of the industry and deciding which topics we’ll cover in each issue. It’s always a little disconcerting, having to cast our lines so far out into the future and hoping we catch enough of the right kinds of stories to keep you, our readers, interested. So as I go through today’s news, I’m gratified to find many issues that are impacting our industry now are reflected in stories we’ve already launched, sometimes months in advance.
For example, our cover story this month, Expanded Stay (page 24) advises employees on long-term assignment and their travel managers to be flexible with alternate housing options. Likewise, staffing giant Robert Half has developed its own City Comparison Tool to help employees consider all their choices. “Career opportunities are important,” says Paul McDonald, senior executive director at Robert Half. “But also make sure your desired location has the culture, environment and price tag that fits your lifestyle.”
Business aviation showed a marked 2.2 percent year over year increase in May, according to research from Argus International. “When the markets are good, business people are flying,” says Robert Hart, president of JetCharter. The jump in corporate aviation is a trend we noticed and are covering this month in The Jet Edge (page 34).
And for global travelers we offer A World of Solutions (page 12) to those vexing expense management problems. That subject is reflected in the results of a new survey from the Chief Marketing Officer Council which finds that today’s international travelers are keenly aware of the need for careful preparation, doing more research on destinations and looking for special services that make travel easier and more manageable.
For me, the annual exercise of putting together next year’s calendar is akin to yelling into a barrel; sometimes you only hear your own echo. So having a sounding board – in this case, current news from the industry – that reflects our own sense of what’s happening in the world of managed travel is both an affirmation and a relief.
It means that month after month the insights and inspiration we bring you in every page of BTE will be a sounding board you can rely on.