Skift Global Forum 2026: The Decisions on the Table

Last month, we published what more than 1,000 travel executives told us about industry events. The short version: most events produce notes. Almost none produce decisions.

Skift Global Forum 2026 is our answer. September 22 to 24 at North Javits in New York, under one theme: Travel’s Great Recalibration. In the room, that theme becomes a set of specific calls the people attending have to make in the next 12 months.

The Decisions on the Table

Every session at SGF 2026 is built around a decision someone in the audience actually owns. Here are a few samples of what’s on the agenda:

Who owns the traveler when AI agents do the booking? If you run distribution, loyalty, or a brand P&L, this is your 2027 budget question. It gets argued out on stage, with the disagreements left in.

Build, buy, or partner for your next growth platform? Hotel CEOs are making this call right now. We’ll explore this decision and many others like it via our main-stage interviews, and our audience intelligence brief will tell you in advance exactly what to listen for.

Where do airlines cut, and where do they keep investing? Capacity, fleet, premium product. The session closes with a Skift Verdict: what they see as the next move for the industry, on the record.

The three days build on each other. Day 1, New Horizons, maps what changed. Day 2, Travel’s Recalibration, argues the hard calls. Day 3, The New Playbook, is where you leave with positions instead of impressions.

How a Session Actually Works

Before the event, Global Forum attendees will receive a detailed intelligence briefing: what’s at stake in the build-buy-partner question, where the industry currently splits, what to listen for. On stage, the moderator will dive into these decisions during sessions and unpack strategies with leaders on stage. After the session, the audience will receive a structured takeaway: what speakers committed to, what they dodged, and where answers diverge with what other CEOs said in the same room.

After the event, Skift publishes the full verdict: what the industry believed walking in, what shifted over three days, and what remains unresolved.

What You Walk Out With

In addition to many new connections, business deals, and opportunities, attendees will leave SGF with a position on each of the decisions above, pressure-tested against the people on the other side of them. We’ll aggregate the materials needed to back it up when you brief your board or your team. And a benchmark: where you stand against the leaders making the same calls.

That’s the ROI answer the survey demanded, and what we’re building for this year’s Skift Global Forum.

Need to make the case to your team?

Join 1,200+ leaders and some of the brightest minds in travel this September. Skift Global Forum 2026 takes place September 22–24 in New York City.