The Future of Business Travel: In Conversation with Skift Media CEO Rafat Ali

Rafat Ali is a two-time media entrepreneur. He sold his first blog a few years ago and is now building Skift, a global media company focused on business travel, conferences, and the business of travel. 

Of course, COVID was not fun. 

The company nearly fell apart, but managed to eek by with a few saving graces. Namely: remote work. 

Rafat made the decision to not renew the company’s lease when it came up in summer 2020, and with that decision the company - and its dozens of employees - went 100% remote. This move stands apart from what’s becoming the major wave of hybrid remote announcements, since as of right now the company is totally remote with plans to stay that way. 

In this conversation with Rafat, we talked about

📈 How Skift weathered the COVID storm, coming back from the brink of collapse (and what they are up to now)

🔒 Remote work versus pandemic lockdown work (they are not the same thing)

✈️ The future of travel (and business travel in particular)

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