Digital & Innovation Conference Agenda
Our 2024 agendas are currently under development, but to get a sense of the quality and focus for our conferences please review our 2023 agenda below.
Theme: “Air Transport 2030”
This long-standing track will include sessions on how airlines and airports can leverage data, digital platforms and innovation to evolve, create new business models and reinvent the passenger experience. Topics include digital transformation, AI, Robotics, metaverse, digital twins, NFTs, workforce optimisation, digital identity, private networks, accelerating sustainability strategies plus game-changing inspiration on scaling innovative new approaches from within and outside of our sector. You can expect to hear from Delta Air Lines, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Korean Air, AWS, Air New Zealand, Metropolitan Airports Commission, Allstate Strategic Ventures, Breeze Airways, Dar Group, Port of Seattle, Copa Airlines, Boeing, Norse Atlantic Airways, Teague, Publicis Sapient, United Airlines, Acubed, TSA, Pittsburgh International Airport, Lufthansa and more.
FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub Live – Open to Corporate Partners only
The members-only FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub Live activities will be hosted alongside our FTE Global event. Our Corporate Partners can expect high-level innovation keynotes, a startup pitch session featuring a selection of high-potential startup companies and then a visit to the Odys Aviation’s HQ in Long Beach, where we will hear and experience how Odys is building the next generation of regional hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft, before joining tours of the hangar facilities and cabin mock-up, followed by a live flight test demonstration.
Visit the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub website to learn more >>
FTE Baggage Innovation Working Group meeting at LAX - members only
The FTE Baggage Innovation Working Group (BIWG) brings together the most innovative and progressive baggage supply chain companies, airlines, and airports from across the industry to provide a unique platform for cooperation and industry advancement. It is the platform for game-changing proof of concepts (POCs) & developing new techniques, technologies, and business models to deliver tangible change in the baggage sector.
Please contact us for more information Airlines can join for free
New for 2023: FTE World Airport Retailing Working Group meeting at LAX - members only
The FTE World Airport Retailing Working Group (WARWG) will provide a platform – and build a community – in which the brightest, most progressive minds in the commercial sector globally from airports, airlines, concessionaires, brands, consultants and more can network & share ideas, visions and learnings on how the industry can improve its commercial offerings, strategies and collaboration. Its free to join for all and this first highly interactive meeting at LAX will be themed as “An A-Z on commercial planning for new & redeveloped airport facilities” and the team from the impressive new Terminal A at Newark Airport (MUC International, Portland Design, Grimshaw & Moment Factory) will help instigate group wide discussions on best practices by giving a 360-degree view on implementing the vision, and the decision-making and lessons learned along the way.
FTE Global Welcome Drinks
We invite all premium attendees to join us for a ‘Sundowner’ drink at The Ballast Point Long Beach. Meet with your fellow FTE attendees, connect with industry colleagues both new and established, whilst enjoying refreshing ocean breezes and incredible water views. Showcasing the very best hospitality that Long Beach has to offer, this sprawling harborside spot, featuring outdoor patios with fire pits, and 60+ beers on tap, guests can relax and network while watching passing boats and gorgeous sunsets.
Tuesday 19th September 2023
Opening Keynote Session
Daniel Coleman
Founder & CEO
Future Travel Experience
Dr. Joe Leader
CEO
APEX/IFSA
Executive Summary Conclusions of the groundbreaking FTE/Fast Future Study on Tomorrow’s Customer 2030
Rohit Talwar
CEO
Fast Future
Leading in Turbulent Times
Brian is responsible for building a vibrant, inclusive culture that accelerates the growth of Google’s business and talent. He oversees onboarding, training, leadership development and talent management for 180,000 “Googlers” in more than 60 countries. Previously, Brian led organisational development for JetBlue Airways, helping shape the company’s distinctive culture from the ground up and contributing to its massive growth as a member of the original start-up team. Prior to that, he held positions at Continental Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
Live Nation, the global leader in live entertainment, produces more concerts, sells more tickets, and connects more brands to music than anyone else. Its commitment to creating memorable experiences and fostering engagement mirrors the efforts of many stakeholders in the travel sector. People are increasingly blending their passions for travel and live music, seeking unique and immersive experiences that combine both. In this session, we delve into Live Nation’s unique strategy and uncover what we can learn from their success.
Jeff oversees global partnership growth and strategy development at Live Nation Entertainment, and is an accomplished senior executive with a successful history in building and scaling strategic corporate divisions and early-stage businesses as a business development and marketing leader in entertainment and technology companies. He resides in Chicago, where he enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters. He is also a DJ (upon occasion) and a passionate music fan (always).
VIP EXHIBITION TOUR, PLUS NETWORKING BREAK
The Airline Technology Leaders Conversation
The moderator will set the scene, and then each speaker will talk for three minutes from their seat on areas of focus and the technologies they are most excited about, and currently exploring. After everyone has voiced their opinion, the panel will share more details, learnings and potential use cases for the new technologies being discussed.
Maninder Bahia
Interim Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Frontier Airlines
Ted Hutchins
Chief Information Officer
Norse Atlantic Airways
Julio Toro
CIO
Copa Airlines
Jaron Millner
Director, Head of Carrier oneworld Digitalisation
Oneworld Management Company
FTE’s Conduits to the Airport Technology Leaders Conversation:
Kevin Kleist
Head of Emerging Trends
Southwest Airlines
Darin Juby
Head of Transformation
Future Travel Experience
SPECIAL PRESENTATION What are the emerging technology trends coming to the world that will impact our industry?
Shaown Nandi
Solutions Architect & Customer Solutions Leader
Amazon Web Services (AWS) & former CIO of Dow Jones and Head of Shared Technology Services for News Corp
LUNCH, EXHIBITION SHOWCASE, NETWORKING, TOUR & BRIEFING
Innovative technology utilisation case studies by airlines
Daniel Coleman
Founder & CEO
Future Travel Experience
Elevating Customer & Employee Experience by Working Cross-Enterprise
Dan Liebermann
Managing Director, Management Consulting
Publicis Sapient
Air New Zealand’s digital innovations and plans for the future
Nikhil Ravishankar
Chief Digital Officer
Air New Zealand
How is Alaska Airlines using technology & innovation to take itself to the next level?
Charu Jain
Senior Vice President Merchandising & Innovation
Alaska Airlines
NETWORKING BREAK, EXHIBITION SHOWCASE & TOUR
Putting Digital Twins & the Metaverse to work in air transport to improve business performance
Following scene-setting presentations, our industry experts will discuss their experiences of rolling out digital twins for their organisations, and share the lessons learned along the way as well as the use cases for these exciting new technologies.
What are the potential use cases for the metaverse in air transport?
Rohit Talwar
CEO
Fast Future
How did Lufthansa and Meta team-up to leverage the metaverse with VR & XR to champion new product offerings to the world, and what other use cases do they believe there are for the metaverse in air transport?
Dr. Bjoern Becker
Head of Future Intercontinental Experience Program
Lufthansa
Bastian Schütz
Global Lead, Virtual & Mixed Reality Content Sourcing at Meta (Facebook)
Meta Reality Labs
How transforming automotive digital manufacturing can be leveraged to change the world of airport operations
Joshua Hirschheimer
Practice Lead - Aerospace, Transportation and Logistics
Porsche Consulting
The Mobility Trends Leading to a Sustainable, Connected & Seamless Moving World
Following a scene setting presentation a panel of industry innovators will discuss their views, efforts, visions and learnings in this realm in a fast moving panel discussion.
Robin Riedel
Partner
McKinsey & Company
A vision for the future of mobility, and its infrastructure, with examples in AAM network planning, place-making, sustainability, equity, and community connection.
Catherine Tobaisinsky
Chief Growth Officer
Dar Group
James Dorris
Co-Founder and CEO
Odys Aviation
Stephen Snyder
Managing Director, Operations & Partnerships
JetBlue Ventures
Amit Rikhy
President and CEO
CAG Holdings (A Carlyle Backed Company)
Rob Mitchell
Director, Head of Business Development - Airports, Events & Travel
Uber
The FTE Global Networking Party & Awards Ceremony hosted by LAWA
Hosted by:
This year’s Networking Party will take place at Ovation Square – a former bank, built in 1923, and designed by Paul R. Williams, one of the first Black architects in Los Angeles, who also worked on the team that designed the Theme Building at LAX. It is located in downtown Long Beach, a short walk from the convention center and downtown hotels. The event will be this year’s premiere industry networking event, providing a perfect opportunity to unwind and network with fellow attendees in a relaxed environment.
The FTE Global Networking Party will also provide the perfect location for the industry-leading FTE Global Awards sponsored by Smithgroup, Kohn Pedersen Fox, and HNTB, which will recognise outstanding achievements in our sector.
FTE Global Awards Sponsored by:
Wednesday 20th September 2023
Symposium on establishing and leveraging Private Networks at the airport
Eduardo Valencia
CIO
Metropolitan Airports Commission
Samuel Ingalls
Principal
Barich, Inc
FTE Global 2023 will be complemented by a dedicated symposium where experts in the field of private networks, and guest speakers, will share insights and learnings in an interactive environment.
Michael Youngs
Vice President Information Technology
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
Walt Shaw
Senior Director of Product
Boingo Wireless
Maarten Van Aerde
General Manager
Citymesh
The FTE AI Symposium – exploring the potential of A.I. in Aviation 5, 10, and 20 Years from Now
Artificial Intelligence technology made a lot of headlines in 2022, with generative-A.I. apps winning art contests and large language models such as ChatGPT wowing the world with spookily competent essays and even song lyrics. These moments expanded the sense that we’re approaching an era of pervasive A.I., in which these technologies transform our everyday lives in potentially unpredictable ways, including in commercial aviation.
These transformations will affect the passenger experience and airport- and airline operations, and create ripple effects in other areas, including: the physical footprints of airport’s, personal devices and computing interfaces, and interactions with new kinds of aircraft and ground-based transport.
Following a scene setting presentation the panel will explore and debate the use cases for AI in aviation and how they could deliver transformational benefits for passengers and industry stakeholders, and the best means to introduce the technology into our organisatons, and sector at large.
Javed Malik
FTE APEX Asia Expo Advisory Board Member,
Managing Partner Ink+ & Managing Director, Ink Arabia
Ink Arabia
FTE Exclusive scene setting presentation: How will the convergence of AI and aviation impact a curb-to-curb passenger journey in 5,10 and 20 year time horizons and how we should prepare for their challenges and opportunities today?
Devin Liddell
Principal Futurist
Teague
Kevin Kleist
Head of Emerging Trends
Southwest Airlines
Nathan VanRheenen
Executive Director, Intelligent Solutions (AI/ML & Analytics)
Boeing
Matt Breed
CIO
Port of Seattle
NETWORKING BREAK, EXHIBITION SHOWCASE & TOUR
The role of Innovation: How can air transport go to the next level, and learn from other industries
Chris Runde
Director of Strategy and Innovation
Introba
Following a scene-setting presentation, the session will move into a fast-moving panel discussion where opinions will be shared on the most exciting approaches going on in other sectors that air transport could apply, and how the sector could better leverage data and innovate to improve performance and better serve passengers?
Outside of the Sector Scene Setting Presentation: What can air transport learn from Allstate’s experience & investments in entrepreneurs whose disruptive technologies that will help shape the future of the insurance industry and adjacent sectors?
Tarik Galijasevic
Managing Director (Corporate Venture Capital Group)
Allstate Strategic Ventures
Paige Stanton Wilson
COO
Acubed by Airbus
Kristen Berndt
Senior Manager, Customer Strategy & Innovation
United Airlines
Paul Puopolo
Executive Vice President of Innovation
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
Melissa Conley
Executive Director of Capability Management and Innovation
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Richard Vandy
VP - Systems Integration and Partnerships
BagsID
- What should the role of innovation be within your organisation, and how do you ensure that it makes a truly meaningful contribution?
- How do you successfully take a POC/prototype/innovation idea from just a test/concept to a scaled solution?
- How do deliver more with less resource through innovation?
- What are the areas for innovation in our industry that really justify you making significant organisational changes in order for you to deliver it?
- What are the upcoming trends that could make a major impact to the world, and our industry?
- How does air transport do better at bringing great approaches from other sectors in?
LUNCH, EXHIBITION SHOWCASE, NETWORKING, TOUR & BRIEFING
Post Lunch Keynote Session for all attendees
What were the key learnings from hosting the World Cup, and how will Qatar Airways & Hamad International Airport build upon the tournament’s incredible legacy?
FTE Exclusive: “Next Generation Aviation Security” Think Tank
Future Travel Experience is wholeheartedly committed to driving positive industry change. A vital part of these efforts are our unique Think Tank projects, which bring together senior experts from across the industry to tackle key topics, co-create forward-thinking visions and address common challenges. Post pandemic and as we look forward, aviation security practices must evolve with the threat, and beyond a 20th Century paradigm of security screening hardware that is largely unconnected and which, as a result, does fully not leverage the power of technology. If technologies, such as cloud computing, IoT, AI, blockchain, big data, digital identity authentication, etc., could be unleashed in an effective risk-based manner, the results would be dramatic improvements in security, lower costs for all industry players and far greater passenger satisfaction. FTE and APEX now look to help inspire the next generation of aviation security through one of our renowned think tanks, where a working group of industry experts will design a new model of aviation security leveraging new technologies and innovative approaches beyond the checkpoint and to encompass hold baggage processing, perimeter security, counter-drone measures, and off-airport processing. The Group will then advise ways in which the industry can work together to achieve the vision. This effort will be supplemented by an industry-wide crowdsourcing effort to invite the brightest minds to put forward their ideas to help inspire the final Think Tank recommendations.
Anne Marie Pellerin
Founder and Managing Partner
LAM LHA
Ian Law
Chief Innovation & Experience Officer
Los Angeles World Airports
Matt Gilkeson
Chief Technology, Data, and Artificial Intelligence Officer
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Lisa Sullivan
Executive Vice President- Travel and Transport
IDEMIA
Tim Lorenzen
Senior Manager, Security Innovation
American Airlines
Bob Kwik
Worldwide Head of Airports
AWS
Sarah Clark
Senior Vice President - Digital Identity
Mastercard
Dr. Joe Leader
CEO
APEX/IFSA
- How are threats evolving post-pandemic, and what will they look like in the next generation of aviation?
- Aligned with the evolving threat and new/emerging technologies, how will security processes evolve?
- Which technologies can truly revolutionise the security process?
- How do we successfully collaborate at the local and global levels to accelerate the fielding of these new technologies and processes, including streamlining certification processes?
- How can the industry achieve a security model that is recognisable and familiar regardless of the airport and despite a range of technologies being used?
- How central will biometrics be to a next generation aviation security vision?
- Is the concept of risk-based passenger screening still on the agenda, or has technology advanced to a point where we can screen everyone quickly if we unlock its full potential?
- How do we address data protection, privacy and cybersecurity?
- How long will it take us to achieve the seamless self-service security experience we all dream of?
- What potential innovations to the “business model”, financing and incentive structure of aviation security could we adopt that would improve security, lower costs and improve passenger experience?
- How will the development of autonomous vehicles and air taxis and the fact that the airport experience begins at home now impact future security practices?
The FTE Robotics & Autonomous Vehicles Symposium
Alternative Session Choice
Through a mix of case studies, discussion & Q&A our speakers will share how they have worked with robotics and autonomous vehicles and offer insights into the lessons learned to date and where their organisations will go next in this area.
FTE teamed up with Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN), Innovation Works (IW) and Pittsburgh International Airport to deliver the Air Transport Robotics Summit in April 2023 for pioneers in this realm to co-create & help shape how autonomous operations, automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other applications of robotics technology can redefine the air transport industry. What were the key learning and outcomes of this effort?
Cole Wolfson
supporting e Tank team members & Director, xBridge
Pittsburgh International Airport
What has IAG learned from its trials in the realms of robotics & autonomous vehicles in its efforts to revolutionise airport operations, and where will it go next with these technologies?
Harvey Tate
Human API – Digital Transformation
International Airlines Group (IAG)
What have been the lessons learned from implementing collaborative robots in Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to support workforce challenges, and how might this technology extend into shaping the future of work by using autonomous transportation and lifting automation?
Dennis van Kleef
Programme Lead Baggage
Royal Schiphol Group
Manuel van Lijf
Director Aviation Innovation
nlmtd
NETWORKING BREAK, EXHIBITION SHOWCASE & TOUR
Workshop: Putting AI to work in air transport
Christian George Kessler
Organizational Alignment and Strategic Innovation
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
Exhibition Closing Party
Make the most of the vital networking opportunities provided at the FTE Global 2023 Exhibition Closing Party which provides a final opportunity to spend some quality time on the show floor with a fun social twist thanks to our exhibitors who will be hosting drinks receptions, prize draw giveaways and unveilings.
The Exhibition Closing Party will begin early so participants have more scope to network outside of the official event proceedings.
Sponsored by:
Thursday 21st September 2023
APEX Thought Leadership Day
FTE Global Registration Open: 08:30 – 14:30
The APEX/IFSA Thought Leadership Day is a definitive highlight of APEX/IFSA EXPO and always attracts one of the best speaker line-up’s of airline leaders in the world to share future visions, insights and strategies and this year is no different.
Thanks to the co-location efforts this year FTE Global attendees will have full-access to this conference day too.
Welcome from Joe Leader, CEO, APEX/IFSA
Dr. Joe Leader
CEO
APEX/IFSA
His Excellency Mr Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO, Qatar Airways Group, Hamad International Airport and Chairman of Qatar Tourism
Mr Akbar Al Baker
Group CEO
Group CEO, Qatar Airways Group, Hamad International Airport and Chairman of Qatar Tourism
10.30-11.00 – Coffee Break
Dina Ben Tal Ganancia
CEO
EL AL Israel Airlines
Ted Christie
President & CEO
Spirit Airlines
12.00-13.15 – Networking Lunch
Capt Ibrahim Koshy
CEO
Saudia Airlines
Anko van der Werff
President & CEO
SAS
14.20-14.35 – Coffee Break
Zhao Dong
Chairman
Xiamen Airlines
Andre Viljoen
Managing Director & CEO
Fiji Airways
16.30-16.45 – Coffee Break
APEX Annual General Meeting (AGM) – APEX members only
Why attend FTE Global?
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Vital Event Information
Future Travel Experience Global 2025 is a global forum that brings together airlines, airports, government agencies, vendors, start-ups, terminal designers, architects, ground handlers, destination partners and various other travel industry stakeholders to learn, collaborate and be inspired on their next moves to transform their organisations’ passenger experience, business performance & sustainability strategies.
- Event
- Future Travel Experience Global 2025
- Date
- - September 2025
- Location
- Long Beach Convention Center, California, United States
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