APEX/IFSA EXPO 2022 will be held between 25-27 October at Long Beach, California and will offer an insightful programme of thought leadership for the businesses and professionals that create, deliver and manage the airline passenger experience.

APEX/IFSA EXPO is one of the few events run by the industry for the industry, offering a raft of opportunities for visitors to hear the unique insights of airline chief executives, senior directors and influential decision makers and meet with leading exhibitors demonstrating all the latest innovation and technology. For more information about this year’s event visit expo.apex.aero

Thought Leadership Conference Agenda 27 October, 2022

Keynote Speakers throughout the event will include the chief executives of Air New Zealand, Connect, Fiji Airways, Fiji Link, JSX, Los Angeles World Airports and Star Alliance.

General Session – The Future of the Biometric Passenger Experience Biometrics has advanced across passenger experience, but the transformation is about to dramatically quicken. Airline biometric bag drops have already begun. Alliance airlines will be able to conduct data interchange. US TSA identification of passengers without any ID required occurs at airports across the US. Airports like LAX enable multi-airline biometric entry and have biometric payment stores coming soon. The end-to-end biometric passenger experience will create incredible opportunities to quicken and improve the passenger experience while maintaining digital privacy rights. Panellists include: US DHS TSA former chief innovation officer Dan McCoy, Los Angeles World Airports CEO Justin Erbacci and Star Alliance CEO Jeffrey Goh.

Breakout Sessions – APEX Tech

• The Future of Connectivity in the Passenger Experience Connectivity is becoming a ‘must-have’ service for many airlines. Some 17,000 new satellites will come online in the next ten years, and a plethora of new service providers are entering the IFEC space. What technologies are emerging? What business models are offered? Should airlines turn connectivity over to service providers, or buy bandwidth as a commodity? Come learn what the future holds for connectivity, and then stay for the next session to learn how connectivity and IFE are converging. A panel of experts will discuss these issues.
• The Convergence of IFE and Connectivity: How edge-caching can be the bridge IFE and connectivity are no longer separate services that airlines must figure out how to integrate. They are two paths to the same destination that are incrementally merging into a single service supported by a Digital Experience Platform (DXP). As bandwidth increases and its cost decreases, content storage will begin to move off the aircraft and into the Cloud. On the ground, this kind of streaming is provided by Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). But today’s CDNs do not reach far enough into areas of constrained bandwidth-like aircraft. Moving the edge of the network 30,000 feet into the air is a challenge. Panellists include: Viasat VP of commercial mobility Don Buchman, Panasonic chief engineer of systems Phil Watson, Netskrt CEO Siegfried Luft, AERQ head of strategy Jonas von Kruechten, Delta flight products VP inflight entertainment Dan Murphy.
• IFE Content Security of the Future: Introducing the Trusted Partner Network (TPN) – the Cloud Version The Trusted Partner Network (TPN), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), will make a major announcement at EXPO on the future course of content security in IFE. The focus of IFE content security in the past has been on physical facilities, like post-production and content integration. However, as content management has moved into the cloud, TPN – under a newly re-organised structure – will now look at both. Learn about how this impacts IFE, a new tiered approach to assessment levels, and how IFE companies can become TPN members and meet the new content security guidelines that will roll out in early 2023. Panellists include: TPN president Terri Davies, a panel of security experts from MPA companies.

Breakout Sessions – Airline & supplier partnerships impacting the passenger experience

• Maximising Customer Service, Ancillary Revenue, & Loyalty Airlines invest incredible funds into their products and services to entertain and engage their passengers. How can revenue be generated from that investment to cultivate an attractive ROI?
• Designing Sustainable Passenger Experience Initiatives Each airline has its own angle on sustainability, but the customer perception of airline sustainability varies dramatically. Leading airline executives will discuss the approaches designed to better connect with their passengers in the years ahead.