APEX Tech preview with Dr. Joe Leader
APEX CEO Dr. Joe Leader
Kicking off APEX’s annual event list this year is APEX TECH in Los Angeles, California from February 28 to 29 at the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel. APEX CEO Dr. Joe Leader tells PAX Tech the gathering is expected to be more inclusive than ever with a growing number of attendees.
“We are shaping up to have approximately 200 attendees this year,” Leader says. “We're very happy with that because historically attendance has been around 100 people. To double that really shows the level of value we're creating for our industry.”
“We want to make sure we're advancing our industry and passenger experience with the latest in technology and connectivity—making certain that we’re advancing together,” he adds.
This year’s event includes workshops, case studies and breakout sessions in addition to the usual discussion panels. Attendees and speakers can look forward to more networking opportunities than in the past.
“Each day will start with a high-speed networking and coffee breakfast. It will create a natural rotation for our attendees to meet new people and make new connections,” Leader explains.
What’s on the agenda for 2024
APEX TECH has an impressive lineup of speakers and discussions organized, featuring Helga Bjarnadóttir of Icelandair, Dirk Ottens from Lufthansa Systems, and Ekrem Dimbiloglu of Delta Air Lines. Leader tells PAX Tech that Xia Cai, Qatar AirwaysSenior Vice President of Product Development, and Emirates’ Patrick Brannelly, Senior Vice President of Retail, IFE, & Connectivity,will also be in attendance as speakers. The detailed schedule can be found online.
“We have a total of nine interactive working groups over the two days, organized so that attendees can select the topics they want to focus on. We have incredible industry leaders that will be the facilitators,” Leader says.
Each table will have a designated note-taker and be headed up by an airline, sharing insights and case studies to advance the industry toward solutions that not only benefit the airlines, but ultimately their passengers. The results of each working group will be shared with all attendees at the end, allowing them to learn from each group even if they cannot attend that specific topic.
Agenda overview
Day one (February 28) starts starts with high-speed networking and coffee, followed by the welcome address.
Next is the Opening Keynote address “Delta SYNC: A Leap Forward in In-Flight Connectivity” will take place with an interview about Delta SYNC between Dimbiloglu, Managing Director of Customer Experience, DeltaStudio & Wi-Fi, Delta Air Lines and Leader.
Mary Kirby of Runway Girl Network will moderate the first panel, entitled "How Does LEO Complement GEO and Vice Versa? What is the Best IFC Setup for Airlines in the Future?” Panelists include Dermot Cahalan, OneWeb; Bill Milroy, ThinKom Solutions, Inc.; Brian Kirby, Telesat; Karthik Bharathan, Viasat and Patrick Walsh, Intelsat.
Next up is “The Commercials of Next Gen IFC Services and How Airlines Can Adopt Them,” with Mike Pigott, Anuvu; Bob Reiter, DIRECTV; Tracy Trent, Stellar Blu Solutions; Edwin Edillon, Jr., Viasat and Chris Insall, ST Engineering iDirect, moderated by Leader.
Dynamic collaboration at APEX TECH. Image credit: APEX
The afternoon continues with “Most Promising Ancillary and Passenger Experience Use Cases and Their Dependency on IFC,” moderated by Bjarnadottir, with speakers Ben Asmar, Safran; Asif Khan, West Entertainment; Mark Smith,AERQ; Marco Dorjee, AirFi and Maneesha Bhate, Thales.
In the afternoon is the workshop overview, followed by a “Speed Snack” break. The remainder of day one will see attendees participating in their selected workshops.
Workshop one, “IFC Deep Dive Workshop”, covers the below topics:
- How Do We Measure the Quality of Experience?
- IFC Technology: Relevance and Readiness of ESAs, SW Defined Modems, and More
- Portal or Not: Different Angles on a Seamless Passenger IFC Journey
Workshop two, “Ancillary Use Cases”, covers:
- Inflight Advertising: What is the Potential and How to Realize It
- Relevance of e-Commerce Use Cases and Inflight Payment
- How to Curate the Best Personalized Media Content Offering
Day one concludes with a networking reception.
Following the morning networking coffee reception, day two (February 29) kicks off with “‘AI-Assisted’ Smart Metadata in the Content Delivery Supply Chain.” Moderated by Rob Delf, Fabric, with speakers Michael Valdez, Panasonic; Andre Valera, Touch Inflight Solutions; Sam Allen, Stellar Entertainment; Richard Kroon, EIDR and Juraj Siska, IdeaNova Technologies.
The second panel of the day, entitled “The Integration of IFE & C: Edge Caching in the Content Delivery Supply Chain,” is moderated by Phil Watson of Panasonic, with panelists Estibaliz Asiain, Anuvu; Sigfried Luft, Netskrt; Jim Nelson, Siden; Esdra Lamy, Warner Bros. Discovery and Jeremy Desmauts, Broadpeak.
There will be a break for a networking lunch, followed by “From Data to Destination: Optimizing Passenger Journeys with Environmental, Personal, and Behavioral Insights.”This panel will be moderated by Haley Meidell, zeroG, featuring panellists Vincent Campana, HRS Crew & Passenger Solutions; Benny Retnamony, ESpace Networks; Kate Groth, West Entertainment and Paul Colley, Spafax.
The afternoon workshops takoff with a 15-minute overview. The first workshop will focus on Content Delivery, answering the questions, “How Far Away are We From an Industry-Wide Migration for Content Encoding and Technical Services into the Cloud?” and “How to Speed Up Media Content Integration and Fix the Last Mile.”
The 30-minute results presentation is followed by the APEX TECH closing keynote address.
“We believe that this APEX TECH will be the launch pad of what we're calling APEX 365. Our members will have the ability to reach out, connect and have constant interaction after our events with other members through our APEX membership portal,” says Leader.
Panasonic is the headline partner for the event. Additional sponsors include Touch Inflight Solutions, Boeing, IMMFLY, the Hub Spafax and West Entertainment.
PAX Tech is a media partner for the event, so watch this space for live updates.
