What's it like to plan or attend a meeting in a really dangerous place? To find out, we asked some American executives who travel regularly to Iraq and Afghanistan. Here's their surprising take on the business climate in these hot spots.
Meetings in Babylon
From February to July of last year, Phoenix public-relations executive Gordon C. James was the lead events planner for the Coalition Provisional Authority (the interim government the U.S. and its allies set up while the Iraqis moved toward democracy). Based in Baghdad, he helped produce and facilitate the daily press briefings broadcast from the convention center, the Abu Ghraib court martials, and the ceremony transferring sovereignty to the Iraqi government; he also traveled throughout Iraq (the modern-day equivalent of Mesopotamia and its legendary capital, Babylon) coordinating events.
"It was sink or swim," James says of his experience as a guerrilla planner, traveling with five staffers in a white Chevy Suburban that held portable staging and other equipment. "There were very limited facilities for events. We built a TV studio from scratch in the palace, built a courtroom for the court martials, and had equipment shipped in to upgrade the convention center."
A major issue was on-the-job training—for locals and himself. "A lot of the people there had never done events or meetings before," notes James. "We helped people learn our craft." And with both supplies and technicians in nearly nonexistent supply, he was forced to be self-sufficient: "There's no Home Depot to run to. We had a lot of stuff shipped in, but if anything broke or ran out, that was it." This also meant learning to operate the equipment himself—a big challenge for someone used to "looking for the on-off switch."
James and his crew traveled everywhere in flak jackets, adding bulletproof vests when they ventured beyond the Green Zone (now called the International Zone), the district in downtown Baghdad where occupation forces live and work. He didn't carry a gun—"I prefer to let the professionals handle that"—but his team was assigned a six-man security detail.
James' most memorable event, he says, was the June 28 transfer of sovereignty to interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. He modeled the ceremony after the U.S. presidential inaugural (which he's also had a hand in producing), working with Iraqi counterparts to develop brief speeches and an oath of office. With 300 people present, "We passed a piece of paper to Allawi saying, 'Here's your country back,' and then swore him and Ghazi [Yawer] in as prime minister and president," he says. "There were tears, smiles—it was a fabulous day."
"Guns Loaded"
What's Baghdad like for an ordinary meeting attendee? For insight, we spoke to a businessman who's spent the past year there. John Smith (not his real name) is a polite man with a discreet manner that doubtless comes in handy for his job representing companies inside Baghdad's International Zone.
Smith, who works with three other expatriates, is highly sought after by companies hoping for a piece of Iraq's reconstruction pie; he represents everything from local engineering and communications firms to Romanian arms manufacturers to South African security concerns. "I get calls every day from companies wanting me to represent them," he says. "Today, for instance, I had three meetings."
Though a relative newcomer to Iraq, Smith emphasizes that he's been working in the Middle East since 1978: "This is not the place for people who are unfamiliar with the region," he warns. Besides donning a traditional Iraqi headdress whenever he goes out, he wears "the highest-level bulletproof vest you can have" and carries three weapons. "It's very dangerous. You always have your AK-47 and [other] guns loaded." On the other hand, although he doesn't speak much Arabic, he only occasionally needs an interpreter: "The businesspeople here are very well educated and a lot of them speak English."
Why would anyone want to conduct business under such harrowing conditions? "It's like the early years of the United States—tremendous opportunities for business," explains Smith, admitting that the ability to "earn money tax free" was his principal motivation for coming to the region in the first place. And he's highly optimistic about Baghdad's business climate in the long term. "A lot of government-owned businesses will eventually become privatized," he notes. "Once the country is stable, investment [for those ventures] will come in. I'm even planning projects with 20-year ownership leases."
Iraq's Ikea
Unlike Smith, Christopher Exline had no Middle Eastern experience and didn't speak a word of Arabic. But that didn't stop the Dallas businessman from launching Home Essentials, a furniture-rental company, in Baghdad two years ago—an inspiration that came to him when he saw the looting there on TV. "I witnessed all of these liberated Iraqis embarking on their own redecorating schemes by looting the palace and office buildings," he explains. "Any good furniture that did exist was now gone."
With 15 locals working for him, Exline admits that staff meetings can be difficult. "Meetings take longer, and they require a tremendous amount of patience," he notes. "Often you find a desire for learning, but being deprived of so many of the practices we take for granted elongates the process."
On the other hand, Exline's firm is successful enough that he recently opened a second office—in Kabul, Afghanistan. "Kabul is becoming a vibrant place that will be fun to watch [evolve]," he says. And he's not the only one who thinks so: There are rumors that a five-star Inter- Continental Hotel will open there soon, and in early 2007, the Hyatt Regency Kabul arrives in the city's business and government district, with 201 rooms and a full range of meeting facilities.