Airline and Innovation company, AirAsia, kicked off their first ever 18-hour hackathon – Air Asia Airvolution 2017 – today at the newly opened RedQ Headquarters in Malaysia.
AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes at the 1st AirAsia Hackathon Airvolution 2017
The event was spearheaded by AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes, and was sponsored by Microsoft, Amazon, Google, AirAsia Santan and AirAsia BIG Loyalty Programme. During the media session with the International Herald Tribune Awardee, Fernades said that the idea of holding a hackathon was bourne from the idea and vision bringing the brand to the connected generation, and to seek new talents and solutions that can improve the airline industry.
Competiting countries in the hackthon include Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Iran, Oman, Mauritius, Australia and New Zealand. Shwoosh swoosh and Algorithm teams are proudly representing the Philippines in this regional competition.
Team Swoosh Swoosh from the Philippines
The hackathon posted 3 challenges, but only 1 will be announced during the event today.
- How do you reduce guests’ waiting times at the airport, from check-in to boarding?
- How do you profile AirAsia fans based on their digital social footprints to improve customer experience?
- How do you offer AirAsia guests the best flights and tours at lowest prices, as well as the best itineraries?
The hackathon is a digital creative team play. Marketing skills come into full play, and the solutions that will be produced are just as important as the presentations or business pitch during the live demos. Each team will be given 8 minutes to present their ideas, which includes:
- 30-second live demo of working proof of concept
- prototype
- app
A question and answer portion will be held shortly after the presentation. The participants are not expected to finish the solutions, as it will be judged according to the following:
- Impact: How would the project benefit the target audience?
- Creativity: Ingenious solutions and original ideas, no matter how big or small.
- Design: A well thought-out blueprint and crash proof, front-end layout and UI/UX.
- Execution: The solution should have a clear timeline and effective results from start till finish.
Apart from wealth of experience and bragging rights, the winning team will bring home RM25,000 (or close to PhP300,000), 100,000 AirAsia Big Points and 5x Return Flights to any AirAsia destinations.
Air Asia RedQ in Malaysia
AirAsia is not a stranger to innovation. As the first ‘social media’ driven airline company, digital is embedded on its core business. It drives innovation like no other airline company in Asia, and they, for one, are paving the way to innovation-driven business.
Their new RedQ HQ in Malaysia and its innovation lab are some of the new innovations they have done recently. The latter (innovation lab), which is inside RedQ is where they showcase their latest technology.
At Innovation Lab, AirAsia RedQ
For more Air Asia and #AirAsiaAirvolution, tune in to our website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
