Glasgow Business . 45
www.glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
Joris Brams Board Director, C&C Group
F
or the past 15 years Joris Brams has spent more time travelling around the world for business than he has spent at home in
Brussels – around three quarters of his time, in fact, in the air, on trains, in meetings and hotel rooms in just about every corner of the globe you’ve heard of and plenty more you haven’t. In his current role as a Board Director at C&C Group, which owns Tennent Caledonian, he is currently travelling extensively to introduce Belgian beer Heverlee to international markets.
Find a project to stave off boredom For someone who spends as much time as he does in the air, you could forgive Joris for being curious about what it takes to keep an aeroplane aloſt. But he didn’t just look into the subject from an academic perspective, he also went as far as training to get his pilot’s licence. “It is good to give yourself a
project to work on. It makes the time go quicker and it is good to
learn new things,” he said. “Te Open University is great for this.”
Invest in a good suitcase Joris advises investing in a strong and rugged case, even if it is on the pricier end of the scale. He explained: “My wife couldn’t
understand why I would pay three times as much for a carry-on bag as her. Aſter more than a decade, the bag is still going strong, while my wife is on her fiſth case. “Cheaper cases can be a false
economy. Also, consider that if a bag breaks open during transit, you’ll not only lose the bag, but you could also lose the contents.”
Travel light, even with technology If Joris is travelling for up to a week, he will only take a carry-on bag. “If you are going for longer than a
week, you’ll probably need to start washing things if you don’t check in a bigger bag,” he explained. When it comes to
technology, Joris likes to keep things streamlined. His laptop is the light MacBook Air, but he also carries an iPad for
entertainment, watching movies Continued on page 46> >
Analysis: Long-haul connections
The recent announcement that London Heathrow has lost its crown as the world’s busiest airport is highly significant, especially for business travellers. Dubai has now taken that title, having carried more international passengers than Heathrow during the first quarter of this year – 18.36 million compared to Heathrow’s 16.1 million passengers. This reflects the fact that long-haul British businesses are using the wide choice of connecting flights going via Dubai rather than Heathrow to reach onward destinations, such as Singapore and Australia. When you think that Emirates now have
two flights per day leaving from Glasgow to Dubai, while Qatar Airways have five flights per week departing from Edinburgh to Doha, business travellers in Scotland and the north of England can now easily reach their long-haul destinations without having to negotiate London Heathrow. George Glen, Managing Director of World Direct Travel
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