Air Travel Technology Hackathon Should Make Flying More Enjoyable
Beginning June 16, the first ever international air travel technology hackathon will take place. Hosted in Berlin, Germany from June 16 until June 18, six international airports will be supporting programmers in their efforts to innovate the air travel experience.
What’s a “Hackathon?”
It’s known by various names, including “hack day,” “hackfest” and “codefest.” Basically, it’s a sprint-like design event that challenges programmers, designers, project managers and others to collaborate intensively on a particular software project. In this case, it’s an air travel technology hackathon.
Sometimes, hackathons are done solely for educational or social purposes. In this case, the goal is to produce usable software that will improve the travel experience for airline passengers.
What’s This Air Travel Technology Hackathon all About?
Providing our passengers with the best possible experience as they travel through the airport is a key priority for us and by collaborating with other airports in this way we are able to explore and push the boundaries of current passenger facing technology.
- Cathal Corcoran, Chief Information Officer, London Gatwick AirportSix international airports are supporting the air travel technology hackathon, called {Re}coding Aviation. It will all happen in Berlin, Germany from June 16 until June 18, 2017. Other airports include Schipohl, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Geneva, Munich, and Copenhagen. Schipohl is organizing the initiative, but all of the airports will provide flight and waiting time information to help the developers with the challenge.
The event is going to be divided into four main themes, covering life before, at, and after the airport, as well as life between airports. That means all aspects of flight travel will be covered, from booking the journey to the horrible time trying to find your luggage afterwards.
Developers will be split into teams. At the end of the air travel technology hackathon, they’ll present their ideas to a judging panel. That panel will determine the winners of each theme, who will be awarded prizes. The prize pool totals more than 20,000 Euros and includes a journeyto tech conference Slush Helsinki, Finland, including airfare, luxury accommodation and conference passes. There’s also a free helicopter ride in store for winners of each theme, along with other prizes awarded by the various airports to their favorite teams.
Gatwick’s Been Proving Itself an Innovator in Air Travel
London Gatwick Airport is on the map for more than one reason, and not just those you'd think of.
You might recall that London’s Gatwick airport recently rolled out 2,000 beacons across its terminals, the first stage of what will soon become one of the most innovative augmented reality navigation systems in the world. Of course, iOS 11’s Maps has begun including maps of internal spaces like airports, but that won’t come close to rivaling what Gatwick has planned.
It will be quite interesting to see if any of {Re}code Aviation’s developers elect to offer up anything using Gatwick’s new Beacon network. I’m guessing at least one team will, since that’s the best example to date of trying to improve life at the airport. Whether it’s a recommendation for how to structure the augmented reality navigation through anairport or even a free game using the facility’s surroundings as the backdrop, it should be cool to see what comes out of the hackathon.