Flight Centre Travel Group’s stars convened in Los Angeles from 11–13 July for Global Gathering 2025, taking over LA with a stellar conference and events lineup to celebrate its people. But the big question is: Where to next year?
The annual event celebrated more than 2,000 frontline Flighties and support staff from across FCTG’s global businesses for three days of reward and recognition with major sponsors Delta Air Lines, Europ Assistance and Sabre as well as many key trade partners and suppliers.
This year’s attendance was tighter than 2024’s Global Gathering of 2,500 Flighties in Lisbon and like last year, it followed the annual Flichella EOFY music festival in Brisbane.
It was also preceded by CSR initiatives on Vancouver Island and pre-fams as Flighties warmed up in LA for the main event.
The blockbuster lead-up to Global Gathering 2025 began with several supplier happenings, including an exclusive event for sponsors to tour Dodger Stadium, followed by the official start at Flight Fest, held at Paramount Pictures Studio & Backlot.
Flighties came dressed for the colour block street party theme in top-to-toe hues with activations from ‘Rodeo’, ‘Sunset’ and ‘Hollywood’ partners/sponsors – named for famous LA streets.
Standout activations included Intrepid Travel’s margarita bar, Sabre’s bar, a karaoke hall hosted by Qantas and the Amadeus A-Listers Glam Bar.
The evening’s entertainment was courtesy of ‘80s icon Boy George with a DJ set plus Paramount dancers that had Flighties partying in the New York Backlot until midnight.
Day two’s Global Gathering Conference took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Downtown LA, featuring headline speaker actress and activist Jane Fonda.
The Hollywood legend shared her story of activism and spoke about making life choices and taking leaps of faith to become a better person and having a greater purpose.
Her message that if you felt strongly about something but didn’t do anything about it, meant you were part of the problem rather than the solution, resonated with the crowd.
Conference speeches included updates from leisure and corporate executive teams. Quoting M. Scott Peck’s The Road Less Travelled, Skroo encouraged Flighties to accept the great truth that life is difficult and to face future challenges more readily.
In addition, Corporate Traveller Global Managing Director (and the Captain) Tom Walley was recognised for his 15-year tenure as Global Gathering MC.
The Global Gathering Gala Awards Night, also at the Los Angeles Convention Center, had a black-tie, Art Deco dress code with Flighties resplendent in formal attire to pay homage to LA’s architectural style.
Awards included James Rakus taking out the Top Global Leisure Consultant for the second consecutive year.
The Awards After Party followed with Grammy Award-winning music producer and DJ Mark Ronson on the decks until 2am, concluding Global Gathering 2025.
Bangkok was revealed as the host city for Global Gathering 2026 – only 12 months to go!
