In the run up to Christmas we ran an informal competition for our hotel partners the world over to submit a picture of their lobbies and their festive tree. Entries came from the Far East, Europe, the Americas, India and the UK. The hotel that entered into the spirit and was voted the winner is...

Welcoming some US associates into the office this week we got onto the subject of breakfast. The world can feel quite small to a company operating in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, the UK, and the US: we share a corporate culture after all. But what does the difference in our early-morning food cultures really represent? Here’s where the humble poached egg, or waffles, took us!

Don’t we just love a conundrum? Even though the world of work is a place where rational thinking, solutions and objectivity rules, it is also a place of riddles, paradoxes and immense subjectivity.

Do we consider the delegate as much as we should?

Having enjoyed the roller coaster of emotions the Olympic opening ceremony served up, I recalled a pitch delivery some years ago when, for the first time, I was presented with the ‘emotional journey’ of a conference. How the three day conference, culminating in a product launch, would unfurl, and the many emotions attendees would experience along the way.

What makes business better? At BI WORLDWIDE we're obsessed with this topic - why do some people strive to achieve more than others? Why do businesses spend billions on incentives, yet not get the returns they could? ...

On a recent fam trip something rather unexpected and innovative happened. At Dreamtime 2011 in Australia, we were all given a Poken to share our information with the suppliers we were meeting. With an accepting grace I went with the flow, not being too clear  what I had in my hand.  I now Poken, do you? ...

The atmosphere in our office is building as we approach our Christmas party. It is quite amazing the effect it seems to have had on everyone which is why it is surprising for us to hear how so many companies have been scrapping their Christmas parties this year; we know that times are tough and 2012 looks set to be another challenging year but Christmas provides the perfect opportunity to reward, recognise and motivate...

As a business that preaches performance improvement, BI WORLDWIDE also practices it. We are proud to be working with clients to help improve their businesses, but we know that we're only as good as the last project - whether a full performance improvement programme, reward and recognition scheme, or a product launch, conference or incentive travel event. To keep us on our toes we ask all we pitch to and work with what they think...

Is Apple on the verge of doing an iTunes on the travel market? If you believe the submissions lodged with the US Patent and Trademark Office surrounding its rumoured iTravel service then it may be the case, and if so what's in store for the incentive travel and conference market?

It's a well known fact that motivation solutions are an important element of business strategy.  However, there's a risk that  companies fail to fully understand their definitive role in achieving business objectives.  All too often, they fail to fully evaluate the efficiency of their investment in motivation.  In other words, do they really measure the return on investment.

Only the proper analysis of Return on Investment (ROI) will serve as a valuable element to business improvement.  Measuring the investment made in any motivation programme is critical to determine whether budget has been well spent in effecting the desired behavioural change.  If you can’t measure it - you can’t manage it!