This post is good for entrepreneurs who are casually traveling, exploring and participating in business and industry related events. It may look like very intuitive and simple topic, but I used to have couple of not comfortable travels until I got right experience.
During business travels, not only important to choose right clothes and dress-code to be ethical and show polite-correctness, but also to take into account weather. When I say weather, I mean not what is provided by meteorological companies, but how you feel inside of your clothes when you are in specific location during visits.
One may say weather is weather, check it by application and go to travel, and if it is conference then wear suit, when it is rainy then take umbrella, when it is cold wear coat, but what, if visit will take 4 weeks and only small bag is right option and weather may change faster then expected?
Following is Hong Kong, weather is crazy, sometimes hot, sometimes rain, sometimes in between. I was in couple of conferences and exhibitions, that is why I am wearing white shirt and summer suit (without suit liner), shirt used to be from silk, but still one can see traces of sweet). It was terrible how I used to feel during that trip because of my clothes. After years I saw in USA new type of white shirt for such weather (flexible and from mix of silk and nylon and skin health friendly). Hong Kong is really beautiful city and it is important to have right cloths to enjoy it.
So, rain in Hong Kong may be completely different from rain in Dubai or Vienna or New York, and feelings will be different, too. Weather is really different and that is why I am sure, innovation in textile and clothe industries must be accelerated, because same shirt which one may wear in Hong Kong can’t wear in Beijing. Flexible clothes with right textile needed, especially during short travels to many locations with lot’s of plans (sometimes time is so short and so busy, that buying new clothes is not possible, too).
Following picture is taken in Tel Aviv, I used to go to business meetings with such clothes, it is business city in shores of Mediterranean sea, which means that during summer no suit is comfortable (let’s remember, I am talking about casual business travel, not high class all inclusive business travel) and because Tel Aviv is very casual business city, wearing very casual clothes for business is very OK.
Following is Astana (Nur-Sultan), Kazakhstan where professionals and businesspeople like to wear suit and this is true for most business districts of megacities like New York, Shanghai, Moscow, better to wear really classy, and following picture is good example. Maybe suit friendly cities are reason why that cities are good for business travelers.
Following pictures are from Cancun, Mexico, very simple, but good way and good look to be causal and not very flexible, comfortable and not different from crowed (even, if you are in business event which is near beach or after party). Same as most beach cities where international business events and tourists are common.
Hear is my style when I am in Moscow or Saint-Petersburg, Russia (picture is old, I guess I took it with iPhone 4 or Blackberry Bold 9000) and even some cities in Siberia, were people who are in business, working for banks and professionals of other industries have good style and even those who work for universities, like to wear suit (which might not be very comfortable during summer in Moscow).
Here is good style to wear in China, white simple shirt and suit with jeans, especially for casual business meetings (but it is better to have a better suit and wear more respectful during serious business meetings).
Playing golf with following suit, even for business networking, was terrible idea. There some rules what to wear when you play golf; wearing polo shirt is recommended and it should be inside of your shorts or pants which should have belt loops. Proper shoes and socks are required, too.
Following is picture from another golf game in Los Angeles, USA, and my outfit is much better for play and for business networking.
Following is again city in Mexico, Guadalajara, one of the best tech cities of Latin America. Lot’s of famous Universities, Technoparks, Startups and events. I used enjoy city and meetings, even I used to change my shirt couple of times per day, because they are becoming dirty very fast because of weather.
So, think first where are you going to travel, think about day and night weather, about places you are going to visit and style of travel you will choose and take right clothes. You may use train, metro, taxi and even Tuk-Tuk taxi in most cities of Asia, you may decide to explore city, touristic destinations, clubs and restaurants after business events and meetings and weather can be very different during even same day.