In-Flight Events Are Starting to Slowly Lift Off

Employees often travel long distances to get to conferences, boarding planes to travel anywhere from a few states over to an entirely new country. In the air, they will usually spend the time catching up on sleep, sending out emails, or watching back-to-back movies. Sometimes, though, the meeting will take place on the plane itself. Nearly unheard of only a few years ago, more and more companies are starting to organize in-flight events. In 2018, Canada’s WestJet brought more than 100 planners from Toronto to Victoria, B.C. to attend Canada’s Professional Convention Management Association convention that started on board the plane. Next year will be Delta’s sixth running “festival shuttles” for execs in the entertainment and tech industries. Boozy networking events with free food and drink, most attendees of these airborne meetings actually seem to love them, rather than viewing them as an imposition on their free time. It helps that they tend to be pretty exclusive, invite-only affairs, with service that rivals first class. For the organizers — whether they be airlines, tourism bureaus, or corporations — the novelty events are a chance for them to rea