Even if, of course, all the purely 'business' ingredients are present. \"It's a very accessible city where business travellers can find all the skills and talent they're looking for\", continues Carole Zerah. And with good reason: in 2008, no fewer than 440 trade fairs and 900 conferences were held in Paris.<\/p>\n
The capital is therefore positioning itself as an expert in the organisation of corporate events. And it's playing the card of a vast range of possibilities in terms of accommodation and meeting venues. \"People still claim that Paris is an expensive city, and it's true that you can find hotels of rare luxury and rent the Ch\u00e2teau de Versailles... But organising a conference on a limited budget is entirely possible\", adds the congress specialist. And yet, the image endures. Michael Rohowski, Managing Director Media Europe at 24\/7 RealMedia, crosses the Channel once a week. For this German living in London, Parisian hotels are still expensive. Fortunately, there are more and more designer hotels at affordable prices,\" he admits. But when you organise a conference, it's often difficult to get a large international turnout; precisely because of the price of accommodation.\"<\/p>\n
Among the black spots that foreign travellers still attribute to the capital, the scarcity of taxis is at the top of the list. \"In New York or London, all you have to do is raise your hand to get a taxi to stop; in Paris, it's a real obstacle course,\" laments John Fellas, a lawyer with a major New York firm. Mary Cronson, producer of the Works and Pricess programme at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, believes that while taxis are indeed rare, the drivers have the merit of knowing their city and their trade well. Strangely enough, among the complaints you might expect to hear, the legendary bad temper of Parisians seems to be a thing of the past. In 2008, 20,000 readers of Cond\u00e9 Nast Traveller magazine voted Paris the friendliest city in the world. According to a BVA survey carried out in 2007, 77% of visitors said they were satisfied with the welcome they received, while a very large majority would like to return.<\/p>\n
Business or no business, Paris can be discovered step by step. Naoki Iguchi, a lawyer in Tokyo, admits that she was initially very irritated by the many complications in Paris during her first stay. \"There was always something wrong with the metro, the taxi drivers didn't speak English... But after three months, I didn't want to leave; the city had really put a spell on me,\" she says, adding that you need to spend several weeks there to begin to grasp it. At first, I was annoyed that there was so little public wi-fi,\" she continues. There are very few caf\u00e9s where you can get Internet access. Elsewhere, in the United States or Germany, it's very widespread. Finally, I realised that in French culture, caf\u00e9s are not places where you work, but rather public places where you simply enjoy life. Another pleasant observation for this Japanese woman is the location of the offices: \"Law firms are in the most chic areas of Paris: avenue George V, avenue Montaigne, rue Fran\u00e7ois I er... This is not the case in London, Tokyo or Washington where we work in business districts that are sometimes out of the way.\"<\/p>\n
For John Fellas, Parisian conference venues have an exceptional charm. \"I had the opportunity to give a presentation at the salons Hoche, and I thought it was a wonderful place. Much more refined than anything I'd seen in London or New York.\" On the other hand, the New York lawyer criticises hotels for not always being sufficiently business-oriented. \"In London, the hotel industry knows how to welcome business travellers and offer them the services and infrastructure they need to do their job, with, for example, much better-equipped business centres.\"<\/p>\n
Here, surreptitiously, the traditional image of a Parisian favouring the art of living, to the slight detriment of work, resurfaces... \"The long, rather relaxed business lunches are also something to be envied,\" continues Naoki Iguchi, a little taken aback. But Paris is still less efficient for business than Tokyo or New York, even if the city gives a sense of fantasy and creativity to those who come here to work\", she concludes.<\/p>\n
Michael Rohowski, Head of Media, describes the business climate in Paris as very positive. \"On the surface, everything looks very complicated, but in reality, people manage to work very efficiently here. Yet he notes a fundamental difference between Paris and other major cities around the world, which is both its strength and its weakness. \"Here, everything is very French. Elsewhere, everything is more international,\" he says. In London, we talk about Europe, in New York about the world in general, but in Paris, we talk about France, if not exclusively about Paris. For urban planner Shamay Assif, head of planning for the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, this uniqueness is perhaps due to the language: \"In Paris, you really feel like a foreigner. For some, that can be a threat. For others, on the contrary, it's a highly motivating challenge.<\/p>\n
But everyone agrees on one thing: while the working language is English, the language we'd all like to speak is French. For a chic Parisian business that is still the stuff of dreams.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"