Intercultural communication and interaction problems in the framework of international business event-management

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Introduction

Nowadays, in terms of the global progress and cross-cultural relationships emergence, people all over the world got an opportunity to travel, meet with foreign countries and explore their cultures; to study abroad in order to have more opportunities and to cooperate in all the life spheres. At the times of the first ancient states appearance military alliances and trading were the basic forms of international communication. And with the development of society and technologies, with the division of labor amplification, new collaboration types have begun to reveal themselves. Here we can include not only those mentioned above, but also culture, economy, ecology, space, medicine and all other sciences. In this work I am going to address international cooperation in terms of business consistent, specifically how to competently start this process in any of the existing shapes and fields.

More than 190 countries cooperate, share information, compete and trade among themselves. The successful company or organization is striving for self-development and to cross the boundaries, including state ones. It is essential to work with foreign partners in all spheres - beginning with applied sciences and high technologies and ending with services and goods trading, as it opens new doors and opportunities and becomes the guarantee of your good reputation. The globalization of the division of labor and the market, the complication of the stated tasks require the consolidation of the efforts of many states. Therefore, multilateral cooperation is becoming more common. For the organization of international cooperation in solving complicated, complex tasks, various regional and specialized associations are created. For example, interstate associations - the European Union, the Eurasian Economic Union, a non-governmental association - the international environmental organization Greenpeace. The coordination of the work of international associations is carried out by specially created institutes - secretariats, commissions, coordinating committees. The largest such structure is the UN, which unites almost all countries of the world. (Zoy Sergey, 2008). It is not proved, but economists claim that the aim of any cooperation is gaining a competitive advantage in a direct way - for example, achieving a free trade agreement.

At the same time, numerous trade and economic organizations aim to provide equal rights for all participants in the global market, to remove the barriers that countries protect their producers with. In the economic sphere, international cooperation is world trade, investment, scientific and technical cooperation, cooperation in the field of commercial practice and many other activities. (Zoy Sergey, 2008).

There is no doubt, that any collaboration begins with a business meeting at which all the details need to be discussed. This business cooperation can be implemented by the means of special events organization, where potential partners can make an appropriate and most expedient impression on each other, prove that this collaboration will be the most beneficial and appropriate for both parties, see if the can align their position and coordination of actions and smooth possible conflicts. I believe that the key factors that influence the result of any negotiations are intercultural competence and intelligence that have to be applied during the contact with foreign partners. It is a very considerable fact that we must be able to understand, respect, recognize, value and perceive features of other cultures if we want our intercultural communication to be successful. That is why this problem has been getting so much attention as it is truly important in the modern world of international interactions. And in this work I am going to focus on intercultural communication and interaction problems that can occur with foreign partners during business events and to provide useful tips on how to avoid them.

The relevance of this research is that the study that is conducted in it can definitely help people to act and behave competently, affectively and appropriately across various cultures. As it has been mentioned above, globalization has resulted in the expansion of communication between representatives of different cultures and countries. And this is the reason why we need to understand the diversity of their characteristics. Having this awareness it is possible to establish and maintain international and intercultural contacts and cooperation in all their contexts. It is essential to be a good communicator in your workplace as individuals you are working with may have unfamiliar values, habits, ways of feeling, thinking and acting, and believes. The main goal is to find proper approaches and techniques that would be useful in finding a common language with these attitudes that are different from yours. A person must be able to learn to accept these circumstances, to work and exist within them and not to lose his or her own personal cultural traits. What is more, the relevance of this project is indisputable and undeniable due to the great interest to the problem stated in it. Nowadays the practice of international business, looking for the new ways of cooperation and boundaries expansion is very common. Many workers face failures in dealing with foreign organization just because of the severe communication breakdowns and misunderstandings, because they haven't even thought that such issues can occur. Not all of them know that intercultural competence and intelligence must take place in any sphere when it comes to cross-cultural intercourse. In this way, they experience a lack of information on how to actually talk to and behave with people from abroad.

Sometimes, after several misfortunes, they try to learn more about the subject from a secondhand source, for example, ask people that had similar experiences, but this data gained in this way cannot be objective, valuable and beneficial. It would be more practicable to begin revising some literature about historical, economic, political and cultural background of a required country, find information about its common habits and characteristics. This provides a framework for independent observations, and it is very important to develop an investigative desires and a high resilience to ambiguity in people: this requires the research to be nonjudgmental and highly objective. So people all over the world and from different spheres can look for data on this topic because without a thorough observation and preparation it can be absolutely challenging to become a successful and effective communicator, to get new partners and contracts and to bring your organization to the new, international level. The main problem that can be is that there are many works dedicated to intercultural communication and business ethics techniques but our research is based not only on theoretical facts, knowledge and complicated definitions. It has a strong practical complexion as our main goal is to conduct the investigation within a framework of real international business events experiences.

Of course, there exist many works related to the subject of intercultural communication, competence and intelligence, and of business communication ethics. Firstly, there are many students' books and other works that provide knowledge and definitions. But there also some researches, books and articles. Emakov Sergey (2017) in his article “Event-management: review and systematization of approaches of the organization of events” concludes that nowadays event management is extremely effective when it comes to the promoting the company on the international arena and finding potential partners. Gina Poncici (2004) in her book “Discursive strategies in multicultural business meetings” addresses the role of cultural differences and their influence on multicultural and multilingual business meetings and claims that individual differences must be considered in the organization in advance in order to achieve a successful collaboration. All in all, she believes that in terms of global business and bringing professionals with different cultural backgrounds together the issue intercultural communication in business meetings require more attention. According to the article “Cultural integration of American values in American firms' presence in China: a pilot investigation of organizational acculturation in foreign business operations” by Long Wang (2016) working with foreign partners may affect personalemployee's cultural habits and values, and has an impact on working behaviors. In this way, mutual assimilation can lead to better understanding of each other and higher results sometimes. In the Hofstede's (2002) book “Exploring culture” we can learn that intercultural competence is essential in any life sphere when it comes to cross-cultural communication. It is about knowing what to say, when and in what way to say it. And Intercultural Group Company provides a special training on intercultural intelligence ontheir web-site because they are sure that this skill helps to avoid international cooperation failures.

The relevance of my research is that I explore not only the theoretical data related to the subject, but we also provide experiences of real international event-managers and communicators and distinguish useful, necessary and optimal techniques according to them. Although this problem has been addressed and investigated from different sides and points of view, our approach is absolutely original and non-standard. For this reason, this work will become a true instruction for those who want to be able to actproperly within diverse cultural backgrounds during business meetings of any sphere. The relevance of the topic of this research is connected with a significant development and spreading of the investigated phenomenon, and lies in the necessity of recommendation elaborating regarding the improvement of this work and fatherexplorations in this field.

The aim of my research is to explore the concept of international business event-management and its necessity, prove or disprove the theory that intercultural communication key components related to business cooperation (intelligence and competence) have an enormous influence on the international business cooperation outcomes and provide effective techniques and patterns of successful intercourse with representatives of foreign cultures.

The object of my research is awareness of intercultural intelligence and competence and their direct influence on the successful process of international business events. In the process of my study some issues are going to be addressed, so I can distinguish the following goals:

* To define the phenomenon of international business event-management and its importance;

* To define the correlation between the process of international business communication and intercultural competence and intelligence;

* To define characteristics and features that are referred to representatives of different cultural types in order to develop or improve cultural intelligence;

* To define intercultural business communication and interaction problems and the ways to solve them within the framework of international business events;

* To investigate conflict management for business and emphasize the most important and useful techniques it can offer;

* To design and implement the interview with international event-management specialists of different companies;

* To analyze the results of the interview to provide recommendations for overcoming key communication and interaction problems.

Theoretical value of this study is that the issue, which is addressed here, is universal and my method can be used in the analysis of the problem of intercultural communication in the framework of the international event-management to any country of the world.

The methods of my research are:

* Literature analysis;

* The interview with the representatives of different companies that have an experience of preparing for and participating in international business meetings;

* Analysis of their experience and reflection of the results in the simple and clear graphics;

* Providing some useful techniques and advice and the most significant conclusions.

1. The phenomenon of international business event-management

1.1 The definition and concept of event-management

“Event is something that is different from ordinary life” - Robert F. Gani, one of the leaders of the Walt Disney amusement park. Nowadays marketing plays the key role in the successful functioning of any modern enterprise. It becomes specifically important when it comes to crisis phenomenon development and promoting companies' politics, values, proposals and finding new followers, investors and partners. (Romanzov A., 2010). This field can be directed to the internal environment of companies (a tool of motivation for staff) and external one (PR and advertising campaigns or the way of attracting new partners). It is not just a strategic management but a great kind of communications.

The public relations sphere offers a variety of ways for achieving these goals, and speaking about business, event-management seems to be the most appropriate and suitable one. Event-industry can be characterized by a rapid development in recent decades, and in most countries professional event-managers are prepared not only to organize occasions (create programs and planning, find venues, book food, provide equipment, invite guests, etc.) but also to make right decisions and act effectively when you are a host and a participant at the same time and need to make a deal with the other party. All people that have this knowledge or educational background in the issue demonstrate organizational skills, creative thinking and high communicability and sociability.

Moreover, they understand that it is not about just laying the tables and entertainment - events dedicated to business partners require muchpreparation and effort in order to be competent, especially with foreigners. (Romanzov A., 2010). Today this speciality is available not only in the best universities and academies, but also in trainings, courses, associations. Even if a person does not have an aim to become an event-manager, he or she can get information about risk-management, cultural and intercultural communication and marketing basis. (Ershova E., 2016). To begin with, it can be explained by the fact that any company that respects itself should have productive relationships with its clients, dealers, suppliers and social circles which are interested in its activity. Traditionally, principal task of this industry are:

*defining and design concepts of an occasion;

*the venue choice;

*event-logistics;

*technical decisions;

*staff trainings before an occasion;

*administration.

But if we speak about people that are not professional event-managers but that must prepare an event for their clients or partners and prepare themselves, the duties and responsibilities become different. The first priority would be to learn and analyze your guests' backgrounds in order to avoid communication breakdowns and show that you are competent as it will make an impression. (Ershova E., 2016).

Event-management is considered to be one of the most significant tools which is directed not to a short-term collaborations but to long-term processes in the enterprise's image development and its influence formation on other people's interests and needs. (Covalchuk A. S., 2007). “Event” means the transformation of the event with the help of auxiliary effects into something completely special from the point of view of the visitors. Event-management sphere primarily focuses on issues connected with what exactly a particular event must encompass, how to plan it, how to prepare for it and how to act during it. No doubt, the success foundation is a thorough planning and preparation and irreproachable organization: it is necessary to have a special system of actions and to avoid common mistakes. Thereby, the concept of the “event” reflects and exceptional character of a particular event which is perceived subjectively. According to some interpretations, the definition means an event that includes semantic loads of favorable occasion and the most desirable result. Its exceptional character can be determined by the following aspects:

* it is valuable due to the memories connected with it;

* it is unique and unrepeatable;

* it encourages the participants to actions, activity by providing some benefits;

* it is properly planned, organized and realized;

* it is full of new experiences, occasions, perceptions and interconnections. (Mozer R. & Zeller M, &Yettinger E., 2007).

In crisis situation exactly event-management and marketing can become a true rescue as it is one of the most promising directions of the business communicative policies. Event-marketing is another important concept connected to event-management and it can be defined as a kind of integrated marketing communications that consist of a complex of activities directed to promoting services, goods, brands in the external or internal business area with the help of special events. (Aaker D., 2003). There is a great number of such events that can be used by companies in order to create the image of a company, to increase the amount of sales and to attract new partners. Different scholars provide many approaches to the classification of business marketing events, as each of them has his or her own opinion about the issue. We would like to introduce the classification according to Fedorov Kirill (Goncharuk P. A. & Kovaleva E. S., 2015), associate professor of the department of marketing in “Moscow Institute of Economics, Management and Law” and the head of the sales department in the company “Oracle JD Edwards Enterprise One”. He distinguishes events by analyzing the target audiences and the orientation to the influenced object:

*Trade events - events created specifically for business partners, clients, dealers and distributors. They can be performed by presentations, conferences, summits, special occasions on exhibitions or in museums, congresses, ceremonial receptions, business lunches or simple table meetings. The goal of trade events is to present a service or a good and their advantages, achieve collaboration with new partners and share experiences. (Berlov A., 2009).

*Corporative events - corporative events that encompass company celebrations and anniversaries, professional holidays and collective staff rest. This kind gives a great opportunity to share companies' ideas, principals and values to their employees, though it also can be useful when it comes to the external marketing as it is always possible to invite important clients and partners. (Krysov A., 2014).

These events are usually connected with the history of organizations, their staff, activity, professional direction. We can name the following aims of corporative occasions: team building, achievements celebrations, getting a feedback from the employees, expressing the gratitude to them, team adaptation and just entertainment.

What is more, they form an organizational culture and provide long-term influence on the image. This is because for the directors the information about the level of staff motivation, psychological climate at the workplace and identification of problems in internal connections are significant. (Ershova E., 2016).

*Special events - events that include festivals, awards, meeting with the media, concerts, etc. All in all, this is a complex of events and occasions that beneficially affect the image of the company as afterwards a wide positive reaction of the target audience which is expressed by a high loyalty to the company and growing interest of potential partners and clients can be noticed. (Muzikant V. L., 2008).

Moreover, some other scholars distinguish events according to their aims: events in the entertaining sphere (music, sport, etc.), events in the cultural sphere, business and political events, events for media, corporative events, events for charity, private events (weddings, celebrations), formal/informal, politic events, international events etc. (Blazhnov E. A., 2008). The notion itself is subjective and ambiguous as the auspicious outcome directly depends on the side event-effects that smoothly move into one another and on the reactions of its participants. Event does not have clear boundaries and may include diverse elements. Another feature is that any event occurs at a specific time. In contrast to what is objectively happening in the subjective perceptions of guests, it is not the duration that comes to the fore, but a specific date. (Poczhepzov G., 2006, ). For example, exams, incidents, visiting of museums, transaction on the exchange may illustrate this effect. Many events have a certain time interval which will be quite short for the observer to talk about its specific time and correlation with the current relevant time scale. It can be reflected in the events that are listed below and duration of which israther short if we compare them with ordinary ones: a flight of one hour duration, a concert of one evening duration, an exam of one hour duration in the framework of four-year course, multi-day volcanic eruption in a geological model of time. The fact that a length of time, subjectively experienced, is the most considerable can be proved by the example of a football match: it is perceived like an event, in which even a long waiting in a queue to the cashier feels like something special.

Exclusivity means not only that the evet occurs once, but also that it is unique and outstanding, unambiguous, exceptional and one of a kind. It is extremely important that it is always determined precisely by the position of the participants that experience something genuine. The problem with exclusivity and subjective perception reveals itself, in particular, in the matter of periodicity. There is no such periodic event that would stand out against the background of the general event series. In order to make one event be noticed and marked in the chain of its own kind, it must be identified as a separate one. (Demidov, V. E., 2004). For example, occasions that happen on the regular basis or often can become very significant for a subject: the beginning of every spring, the Olympic games that begin once every four years for sportsmen and organizers, regular participation in trainings at work, etc. they can look like a routine in the eyes of their creators, but they are perceived like true events by the visitors. It is equally connected to culture, sport, science, entrepreneurship and other life spheres. The process of event-organization assumes that it can become a huge project which will include many brands and companies as partners as sponsors. If the event is correctly prepared, the target audience corresponds to its kind and topic, the effect will not be long to appear. With the help of a competently held event the brand will increase its awareness by more than 30% and strengthen clients and partners' loyalty. (Rozhkov Ya. & Kismereshkin V. G., 2006). At the stage of developing an event its structure should be envisaged, i. e. the presence of a plenary session, the work of sections and business areas, as well as the duration of all these stages. Thus, the task of forming at least a simple program arises. (Pasmurnov A., 2006). The regulations (scenario, program) should include a clear system of the implementation of the event, specific directions on how to communicate with the audience and its specific features that should be noticed, the procedure for reviewing questions, forms of completing of the substantive part. The regulation is a strongly recommended part of both regular and irregular occasions. (Pasmurnov A., 2006).

The main aim of event-management is to present an occasion in such a way as to express its exclusivity, uniqueness, to present all the beneficial aspects of the enterprise so that guests would become interested and perceive it as something outstanding. It gives a great chance to affectively build an emotional bond between all the participants, ensures the maximum involvement of people in the event process which will lead to their loyalty in the future. The range of offered opportunities is rather wide: simple or important messages to employees, customers and contractors, effective presentation of a brand or some kind of products and services. The scale of influence may also be different: within one firm, several companies or extend to huge, sometimes incalculable, public masses. (Ershova E., 2016). An event is always an opportunity to meet people face-to-face, and this gives more chances to influence them. Since we live in the world full of collaborations we have decided to concentrate on business event-management as any cooperation starts with the business conversations, personal or remote. Because of the severe rivalry in the market potential partners and consumers have become more cynical and preconceived, and the fact that today there exist thousands of companies and not all of them can show a real professionalism and reliability has made business environment more harsh and selective when it comes to making new deals. That is why a correct business meeting preparation and behavior during it are the key factors that can attract potential associates, especially foreign ones. (Gina Poncici, 2004).

1.2 International business event-management and its variations

Business events are social events in business: conferences, presentations, round tables, forums, seminars, meetings, which in terms of composition, duration, geographical coverage exceed the classic office meetings. This simple explanation was provided by Maarten Vanneste (2016), the author of the international bestseller “Architecture of a Business Event”. As a president of the Institute for the Design of Business Events, he has studied from the inside a lot of real conferences and forums and compared their organizational features. Business events are professional events of different formats directed to achievement business goals of an enterprise. They are organized in order to share experiences, express values and ideas and attracting new partners and clients. The venue depends on the conception of the occasion, its aims. As the rule, conference halls, exhibition halls, hotels and pensions are chosen as the most convenient and comfortable places.

Almost any business meeting has standard stages and aims:

*Defining of opinions and positions of all the parties;

*Discussion and argumentation for the expressed views - this stage is often characterized by conflicts of interests;

*Searching for compromise and agreement in every discussed issue;

*Results analysis and execution of agreements. It can be achieved by creating and providing of professional communication, collaborative work on the project, maintaining contacts and business activity.

It must be mentioned, that success of any business meeting primarily depends on paying attention to cultural habits business and life habits of the participants so that no one will be confused, surprised or seen as strange or incompetent. We can define any type of events as some amount of distinctive speech events that can be monologues, presentations, collaborative discussions, etc. And exactly all these moments are critical and crucial for all the participants as they influence their future decisions. Even the moments of coffee breaks or dinners are another chances to make an impression or spoil it, to get new knowledge or to establish new contacts. (Gina Poncici, 2004).

We can define several key types of business events in general:

*Conference - is the meeting of the representatives of different companies, organizations, unities or even countries that can share professional knowledge with each other. Moreover, they are held to acquire new associates or consumers and to offer and discuss various strategies of solving the most important problems connected to the particular field. Recently audio- and video-conferences have become more common and generally accepted because they allow to noticeably cut the budget and the time for preparation. One of the main aspects is to choose a great speaker that will be competent in the branch and able to correctly convey information. (Pasmurnov A., 2006).

*Dealer events - events that can be created in a formal style but let the atmosphere to be more relaxed so that all the participants are in a friendly environment. To achieve this businessmen choose to organize them in informal places with the most important part of the program (presentations, round tables, reports, etc.) in the first part of the day and then - some entertaining and relaxing activities. These occasions may occur on exhibitions, forums, seminars and other exit events. Primarily, this kind of business-events is about sharing information and the market demands and needs identification. It is a form of encouraging leading partners and a combination of business communication with a pleasant amusement. The event provides a perfect opportunity for a relatively short period of time to meet the leadership of partners' companies that actively work in the market and discuss the pressing problems and outline prospects for the future cooperation. (Malashikova E., 2017).

*Business-seminars - an interactive business event, the main goal of which is mutual training of the participants. They present their topical reports on current issues, discuss, negotiate and share new approaches and thoughts about them. Seminars can be opened and closed according to their goal. The closed ones are organized for the company's staff in order to raise and improve its skills and expand its competence, and the opened ones are available for everyone who has a desire to come in terms of enterprise's self-advertisement. In general, seminars are directed to acquiring new skills and knowledge. (Pasmurnov A., 2006).

*Training - educational business events, held for the company's employees and during which certain skills, behavioral models and professional knowledge are formed. The most popular kinds of trainings today are business games as well as training on sales and business communication. Corporate sessions are held in a game format and special trainers with corresponding qualification are invited to help. (Pasmurnov A., 2006).

*Exhibitions - presentation of goods, products or services which is organized to maintain a business image of a company, to attract clients and search for new partners. In the framework of preparing these events businessmen may also decide to choose other variants, such as master-classes, seminars, trainings, etc. But the fact that an exhibition is an event that accompanies larger and more serious professional occasions like forums or conferences. Though they usually have positive characteristics of their atmosphere but it can be achieved only by the advance preparation of technical equipment, constructions and stands so that guests would stay impressed and satisfied.

One of the main features of exhibitions is their duration, as they can last for several days. Besides the main part, they may include opening and closing ceremonies, awards sessions and entertaining programs. These events are an important, versatile and highly cost0effective business tool. They are an integral part of the overall complex of marketing communications. (Malashikova E., 2017).

*Business-dinners - meetings that maintain a formal sense but allow their participants to relax a little bit and enjoy a meal during a serious discussion. Furthermore, it is a beautiful chance to meet a new colleague/client/partner, become acquainted, understand everybody's personalities and establish the ground for the future cooperative work. (Malashikova E., 2017).

*Presentation - meeting that gives an opportunity to present products, services, projects, new achievements, results and new ideas or perspectives. It is the most significant tool in marketing and an essential instrument when it comes to impressing possible partners or clients. (Malashikova E., 2017). Presentation is usually a part of the bigger event and that is why it is difficult to make it noticeable and interesting to the audience. (Pasmurnov A., 2006).

*Reception - an event without which the modern level of business communication cannot be imagined. Official receptions are held in order to establish or improve business contacts, to form partnership between the participants, deepen and expand bonds, obtain the necessary information and so on. Quite often, they can be a part of a large business event. For example, receptions arranged on the occasion of holidays, anniversaries, the arrival of foreign delegations, the signing of contracts, making of deals, and in order to provide honor or hospitality to individuals in the framework of business protocol events. At the receptions business partners have the opportunity to obtain additional knowledge and expand contacts. Actually for business a reception is, first of all, a continuation of work activities; an active exchange of opinions and information takes place there, and communication improving happens more efficient. (Malashikova E., 2017).

*Round tables - events organized for the image. Their topics are broad questions on and problems in business, politics, economics, culture, science, etc., as these issues, tasks and ideas are important for the general public. That is why the promotion of one's ideas in the framework of the round table depends on the bright, attractive and interesting reports and performances. Authoritative representatives of the fields mentioned above are usually invited to round tables because due to them participation in these events contributes to improving of the image and awareness of the company. (Pasmurnov A., 2006).

*Business-forums - events that are one of the most large-scale ones. The format has become especially popular recently because it covers a big audience, allows to communicate semi-formally, is quite free for official events and includes all the types (or most of them) of the events mentioned above. On the forums participants (and even those who are only starting their work) can loudly declare themselves and find important contacts. In general, guests discuss problems in a particular business field.(Pasmurnov A., 2006).

According to the information provided above, we can state that business events in general are essential for the whole business process, and all these types are implemented to the international level as well. Business is that field that requires the constant development and movement, and meetings offer so many different benefits, beginning from just staying up-to-date with the market and particular industry and finishing with opportunities to get new connections, clients and partners and acquire another level for one's company and increase the success. (Malashikova E., 2017). One of the main reasons to organize a business event is to seek for new clients by introducing yourself to potential customers. Another reason is to find business partners and make collaboration with them by showing your experience and potential and estimating the other party's offers. Just in case cooperation seems to be impossible, it is always good to see what ideas other organizations have, how they work and what mistakes they make, and maybe this will benefit your own policy. Being surrounded by successful businessmen and businesswomen, you can get new experience and information and become even inspired for something new. (Malashikova E., 2017). Any cooperation starts with a meeting, direct or indirect (via Internet resources) and often this is the only way to reach an agreement and achieve successful results that would be beneficial for all the parties.

No doubt, business meetings are needed because it is easier to discuss and make decisions, see all the aspect with one's own eyes, share opinions, ideas and knowledge, make presentations and cooperative conclusions. They also help to establish good relationships, especially with foreign partners. (An article “About business events, web site of Business Events Council of Australia).

Marianna Glynska (2017) in her article “Why Is It Important to Attend Business Events?” provides the statistics that shows that China is one of the most significant leaders of the world's market and it can influence the economy of other countries. She claims that Chinese are interested in development, innovation and in foreign products, and this helped them to make their economy global. The reason is that they understand that in order to achieve this, one should learn as much as possible about the today's world's market tendencies by attending business events, by building collaborations and network of connections worldwide as it opens all the doors and gives unlimited opportunities in business. Recently china has created its own business events and exhibitions: CHTF, Air Show China, China import and export fair, CIIF, etc., and now other countries can find out the secret of this country's success which is pretty simple. Gina Poncici (2004) discusses the idea that many scholars believe that exactly face-to-face communication plays one of the key roles in international business. It helps tostrengthen intercultural interactions, to create worldwide experience exchange and to successfully develop relationships. According to different authors, it also helps to reduce uncertainty avoidance in companies, to push enterprises for new steps and improvement and to be in the aware of all the modern tendencies and innovations, as the information they can get from other people of global business is the biggest wealth. Availability of many channels is essential but written or telephone conversations cannot give all the opportunities that live meetings can. Vanneste (2016) concluded that people organize business meeting for several simple reasons:

*Creating and maintaining the positive image of the company;

*Attracting partners, clients and investors;

*Successful introducing and realization of the new product or service in the market;

*Increasing of brand awareness. (Pasmurnov A., 2006).

1.3 The concept of business communication and its goals

There is no doubt that communication plays the principal role if we speak about doing business, especially global one. Actually, its role is essential in any human activities - this is a way for socialization, for becoming an intelligent, reasonable person and individual, the member of a society out of a biological creature. Communication can be analyzed like a wide phenomenon - it is an exchange of information, and ideas, mutual influence, mutual understanding, psychological contact that is connected with the perception and other features of a person or a group. (James M. Lahiff & John M. Penrose, 2004). Though Dana Loewy and Mary Ellen Guffey (2010) provide different definition. They believe that this process is an exchange of meaning as communication has a central objective, so it will be successful only in the case if a receiver understands the idea in the way the sender meant it to be. What is truly important to emphasize is that it is not a monologue - it is a dialogue only. And business of todays is a complex and complicated process of production that requires a collaborative character of the labor and working with a diversity of resources. That is why we consider communication to be the means for cooperation, interaction, providing achievement of the employees' and companies' objectives. The importance of social business directness, following and complying with the rules and norms are those aspects that cannot be ignored in this issue. (James M. Lahiff & John M. Penrose, 2004). Anyway both business and management have the same important aspect - people and communication between them. And today, no matter where you work, the process of information exchange is able to provide a success or a failure, everything depends on it.

Why do we actually need effective business communication? In simple words, it is used to:

?Build contacts with other businessmen and businesswomen that can share their experiences and ideas;

?Look for new partners;

?Information exchange;

?Making decisions and achieving agreements;

?Making orders;

?Promote products, services and organization itself;

?Attract more clients.

We would say business is communication: the first does not exist without the latter. An organization will have no activity and move without this process. Feedback is an integral part of the modern business as organizations are extremely large and involve huge numbers of people. Moreover, there exists a complicated hierarchy so it is challenging to organize an effective communication flow between all the constituents so that it could direct and manage the work. Staff in modern organizations needs to acquire scientific methods of cognition, be able to conduct the necessary research in the field of their activities by using external sources of information and knowledge and making their own independent surveys and studies in their companies. Here one can include improving qualifications, learning languages for business, self-studying of the effective communication skills, conflict management skills and cross-cultural diversity influence on the global business interactions. In total, it will help to become an excellent worker that can go higher on the carrier ladder that is absolutely impossible without being an exclusive communicator, specifically with foreign partners. (James M. Lahiff & John M. Penrose, 2004). James M. Lahiff and John M. Penrose (2004) provide several significant consequences of poor communication in business:

* Spreading of incorrect information can lead to huge collapses. For example, there can exist mistakes in the names of brands; wrong numbers, names, dates and addresses in documentations - they can cause investors, suppliers and partners to be in delusion and this will cause financial losses, breakings of contracts and spoilt reputation in the market.

* Communication underload (giving not enough significant knowledge so that workers can complete their tasks in a proper way as they experience lack of information) and overload (spreading too much unrequired information or that cannot help or contribute to the staff but can literally “bombard” with extra unnecessary data) within organization can easily bring much harm to the working process of the whole institute. It is very important to convey information to the workers correctly, emphasize the principal points and avoid “empty” talks because otherwise people will not manage, and organization will not improve its performance.

As we can see, it is important to maintain effective communication in business. According to James M. Lahiff and John M. Penrose (2004), people spend approximately 75% of the whole working time on this process. And maybe it is expensive to improve and maintain it but ineffective communication can cost much more than that. Its breakdowns' ability to lead to long-term consequences may make it challenging to determine the exact amount of incurred costs and losses. However, there is no doubt that ineffective communication gives rise to mistakes, misunderstandings, poor performance and negative emotions. Today companies experience high competitiveness, so they need to always improve their communication skills in order to receive and deliver information internally and externally. We can distinguish 2 types of communication in business:

*Internal - downward (data that is delivered from authority to employees), upward (data that is delivered from employees to authority - employee feedback) and horizontal (data that is distributed between employees of one positional level) information exchange within a company. If this type is effective enough than an organization will demonstrate high productivity and job satisfaction. Superiors need downward communication to transmit essential data, give orders and instructions, announce changes and decisions, increase motivation and efficiency, while upward communication is necessary to offer ideas, express opinions, give feedback and express satisfaction or disappointment. Horizontal one is used to improve team morale and work, solve problems and accomplish objectives. ;

*External - all the communications that occur between a company and its partners, customers, sponsors and suppliers. Moreover, it concerns also contacts with the public that can be realized through interviews and other social media releases, and different events. Simply saying, it is a communication outside the organization. It is absolutely important because it volumes sales, creates public credibility, increase company profits,improves the brand image and performance.

*Marketing communication and sales communication - is a common practice today when a company has an objective to promote and sell its services or products. Zach Lazzari (2018) highlighted the most effective - commercials on TV and radio, billboards (especially interactive) and presentations;

*Formal communication - is usually used in documentations (contracts and reports, for example) and at official business events where businessmen and businesswomen should avoid irrelevant, familiar behavior as it can characterize him or her as an impolite, unserious and incompetent person.

*Informal communication - naturally happens in the workplace. Here we can include friendly small tacks, collaborative brainstorming, work process discussions and sharing ideas. Actually it boosts creativity, sociability and desire to do something; benefits to the team morale, atmosphere and the whole company's performance in total.(Zach Lazzari, 2018).

Business communication (as any communication itself) can also be regarded as oral and written, and the latter is becoming more and more important these days. Written skills are essential in the conditions when people do not work I the same place but they need to stay connected and often solve rather complicated issues via texting. Today, due to the age of new technologies, we can always maintain the contact in any time and everywhere. Businessmen and businesswomen commonly use cellphones, voicemails, e-mails, text messages, computers without which any work cannot exist, and even tweeting. That is why employs are looking for not only excellent oral communicators but also for ones who can write well. It is a sign of high professionalism and level. But we are not born with already developed ability to speak and write effectively - so people who want to be successful in the workplace should always improve these skills. (Dana Loewy & Mary Ellen Guffey, 2010).

Regarding the points we have mentioned above, it is possible now to define the main business communication channels: internet, social and mass media, television, radio and personal contact. Personal meetings are still considered to be the most appropriate way to do business, especially with new partners. It can be argued that it is the perfect chance to establish good relationships, know and understand each other. Though businessmen and businesswomen prefer in-person or face-to-face communication, we are living in the age of technologies that created a lot of different ways for contact which can make the work much easier for all the participants. Of course, it concerns on-line shops and apps, ability to make presentations but the main speciality is that now we have an opportunity to make conference calls - people may have locations in different points of the globe but can make a call and eve see each other through the screen. Video group chats for business meeting became have become a common phenomenon recently. (Zach Lazzari, 2018). I analyze business communication in the international framework, so I emphasize the importance of understanding that this process is regulated by special norms and rules because it plays the principal role in doing business with partners. Speaking about effective business communication, we must not forget that it is about special etiquette and interpersonal skills. A person should mind ethics that is an integral part of it. In a wide sense it is ethical beliefs and moral principles that govern and influence people's behavior, dictating what is good and bad for the society and individuals. If we put it in the business framework the definition will end with “within organization”. However, there is no standard and adequate definition. But many scholars propose six universal moral values to be included in the understanding of ethics: fairness, care, respect, trustworthiness, responsibility and citizenship. The problem is that different people may have different views on what is ethical and what is unethical, what is fair and unfair, what is the expression of respect and what is not. (Scott Thompson, 2018).

Anyway, some elementary ethical requirements are fixed by law and there is no doubt that in some companies authorities create their own communication and behavioral norms and standards. For example, they include prohibition on insults based on gender, age, race, etc.. (Melissa Norton, 2018). But taking intercultural business communication into account, we want to focus on what should be strongly avoided or obligatory achieved during the cooperation with representatives of unfamiliar foreign countries. As we have already proved, global partnership depends on communication that needs to be effective. An effective communication means to apply such techniques that would benefit to the positive outcome in this particular situation with these particular people. In other words businessmen and businesswomen should aspire to avoid communication breakdowns by:

? Considering and accepting cultural differences of other parties;