Lately business travel for me has entailed short, hurried trips to Asia the UK and Australia.  But my most memorable trip has to be the whirlwind trip we made to Shanghai to negotiate the sale of a stake in our business in November 2006. We were there just 36 hours.

Our funds management business Liontamer had been made an offer from a division of one of Europe’s largest banks, KBC Group. The offer was one we couldn’t refuse so when KBC invited Laetitia Peterson, our MD and I to Shanghai to attend the launch of a new Chinese joint venture, we decided to go for it. Despite the short notice, the distance, the unfamiliar territory and the visa issues it was the perfect opportunity for us to meet all their key executives,

We had only four days to arrange Chinese visas. Anyone who has tried to get a Chinese visa will know this is an almost impossible task. The Chinese do not offer their visas willingly. We managed to get our visas just in time to board the flight to Shanghai.

Between arranging flights, visas and preparing our presentation to KBC, we missed one vital bit of research regarding our destination – the weather! Being autumn in China, we were assured it would still be quite warm so we packed our summer clothes and confidently headed North. When we landed it seemed that winter had arrived a bit early. It was 9ºC.

When we left Shanghai Pudong airport it felt as if we had landed on a foreign planet. There we were dressed in our best summer clothes in the middle of winter. For a moment or two we really questioned our sanity about agreeing to meet in Shanghai to negotiate the deal.

Nevertheless a few hours later we were in negotiations regarding the acquisition. The meeting was a success and we had time for a quick spruce up before attending the launch of KBC’s new investment business. It was a highly publicised, high profile event attended by a number of dignitaries. Yet to our surprise glitter balls and strobe lights marked the occasion. And yes, we were still cold since we hadn’t had a moment to go shopping for winter clothes. But they say vanity knows no pain so we simply gritted our teeth and got on with networking up a storm. As you do.

There was no time to worry about jetlag.  With a few hours to spare the following day, we embarked on a condensed sightseeing tour of the city. Four exhausting hours and 200 photographs later, our tour guide announced that in all his years as a guide he had never seen tourists who managed to fit in so many sights in so little time. I think he was relieved to see the back of us. We were just thrilled to have photos that could be used for marketing purposes. It no longer mattered that we were cold.