With the Miami Vice theme song blaring across the Mondrian Hotel terrace and a speed boat chase in the Biscayne Bay beyond, it’s safe to say that Avinode Academy Miami got off to a very unusual start. We watched from the terrace as, a white-suited, Sir Richard Branson chased super model Karolina Kurkova to the shore, apprehended her, in true Miami Vice style, and then, with her in his arms, jumped, fully-clothed, into the pool. It is with great regret that I must admit this show was not our explosive opening to academy, but was, in fact, Virgin Atlantic’s celebration of 25 years serving Miami.
For Avinode, however, this was our first ever Avinode Academy here in Miami, and we felt it opened with a bang. With 68 attendees from across North America representing both the operator and broker communities, Avinode Academy Miami was our third global Academy and our largest to date. That Avinode Academy will be back next year is not only a promise, but a demand from all participants, given the extraordinary feedback we received from during the event. There were even a number of participants who wished we would expand this to a two-day event next year, but we cannot promise that at this stage. For those of you that were there however, I am sure you remember my promise that Nina and I will kick off next year’s Academy either by jet ski or parachute. I know you will hold me to this promise, though I’m not sure you’ll be able to count on the pool part.
Once the excitement of Virgin Atlantic’s dramatic morning press conference died down, we quickly got to the business of Academy. It was an intense day, filled with presentations, workshops and discussions covering a wide range of topics. One of our most important tasks of the day was updating out members about the integration process and bringing them up to speed with where we are in merging the Avinode and CharterX marketplaces. I’m sure you have all seen the changes to the Avinode Marketplace GUI. That update was an early step in the process, paving the way for a number of new functionalities and tools that we will soon be introducing. While you are waiting for the new Marketplace, however, make sure you don’t forget about all the great tools and products that we already have available for you.
After discussing the plan for the next incarnation of the Marketplace, the Academy agenda moved on to focus on the valuable resources currently found in the Avinode Marketplace. We had a number of workshop sessions covering a wide-range of system topics. These workshops generated a lot of feedback, new ideas and other layers of questions regarding things like standardizing empty leg prices, how to guarantee prices in the search results and how we as an industry can be become more efficient by making better use of an electronic workflow with other Marketplace members, and end-clients. For me, the number 10,000 really stands out from this discussion, as it represents the minimum amount of hours per month that operators would save if all members would use the built-in request tools inside the Marketplace to send inquiries so that they can import these requests directly into their price calculation tool and respond electronically.
Extending this electronic workflow to interactions with end-clients was also brought up as a chance to build businesses and streamline work processes. For us, this goal means bringing you, our members, the tools to make the products and services you offer within the Marketplace more accessible to your clients. To this end we have built a set of App technologies that can be placed on your website, or distributed on smartphones to help your clients find charter aircraft in real-time and request flights from you electronically. The efficacy of this approach was underscored by a news clip that aired the morning of Academy, on the ASIA News Channel, profiling Chapman Freeborn’s new iPhone app, which was built using Avinode technology. This app, which makes it simple for end clients to search for and request private charter trips, has already generated a lot of interest in Chapman Freeborn’s services and, as evidenced by the news clip, is making great strides in bringing the Chapman Freeborn brand to a wider audience. If you are interested in seeing what an Avinode-based smartphone or web app can do for your business please give us a call to learn more.
In addition to to the planed sessions and workshops, networking opportunities are an important part of Avinode Academy. Through out the day and evening there were plenty of possibilities for great networking. Many attendees expressed their appreciation at having the opportunity to interact with people from the other side of the business to discuss common issues and gain insight to new perspectives. One attendee commented that S&D used to offer this possibility, but is now more focused on the parties and prizes, so Avinode Academy fills an important need in the year’s calendar of events. We couldn’t agree more.
The Avinode Marketplace is a community. The community is made up of our members. For Avinode to continue to be successful we are dependent on our members working with us, supporting us and challenging us to become an even better partner. If the energy, enthusiasm and commitment to working together to improve our industry displayed at the Avinode Academy is any indication of what lies ahead then I must say I leave the day very encouraged that we all have a successful future ahead of us.
Thank you to everyone who made the Avinode Academy such an outstanding success. We look forward to seeing you all next year!
For those of you who can’t wait, we welcome you to join us on the 24th of November 2011 at our headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden for the 2nd Avinode Academy Europe.
Best regards,
Per Marthinsson
