Flight Centre Brings a Taste of Brazil to Its Employees

Flight Centre Brings a Taste of Brazil to Its Employees This Weekend

• 800+ hours of planning and preparation
• 1,540 chairs and 154 tables
• 15,400 glasses
• This weekend is set to be a big one!
It takes more than 800 hours of planning and preparation to pull together one of New Zealand’s largest black-tie events, but the managing director of New Zealand’s largest travel retailer believes it’s completely worth it.

Chris Greive heads up Flight Centre New Zealand and he believes this annual event, due to be held at Vector Arena on July 11, is imperative to ensure the company’s employees stay the best in the industry and keeps energy and passion levels high throughout the year.

“Flight Centre is known for its celebrations, and our annual awards night is the pinnacle of our social calendar. It allows us to recognise and showcase our best talent and gives the whole business a sense of togetherness,” Mr Greive says.

“We recognise the importance of investing in our staff because at the end of the day, they are the people who drive the success of our business. The 2014 - 2015 financial year has been very successful for Flight Centre New Zealand and the national awards night is crucial to these results. It’s a huge motivator to our staff, to be recognised in front of their peers and their leaders, across the country.”

This year’s ‘Sambadromo Ball’ will be a Rio Carnival inspired night and promises to be the biggest company event yet,” Mr Greive says.

The event brings together almost 1,550 Flight Centre employees and their partners from across the country and is managed completely by cievents, a creative event management agency, part of the Flight Centre Travel Group.

Julie McWatt, general manager of cievents, says she enjoys the creativity, challenge and sheer size of pulling an event of this nature together.

“As one of the largest events of its kind in the country, it’s certainly a challenge! All of the long hours and hard work are completely worth it though to see everyone having a great time and to be able to all celebrate together, ” Mrs McWatt says.

“There’s always such an awesome reaction when the doors open as well, while everyone knows the theme and that there will be bands and entertainment, the details on who or what is kept a closely guarded secret until everyone arrives.”

A selection of those that win awards on the night are then flown to Las Vegas the following weekend for the annual Flight Centre global gathering, where 3,300 employees from around the world are brought together by the company to celebrate their success. In 2014 the global gathering was held in Macau, China and in 2013 it was in Cancun, Mexico.

Some statistics on the Flight Centre national awards night:

400 wait staff required
1,540 chairs
30 crew to set the event up
5,000 plates
15,400 glasses

ENDS

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