I’m attending workshops and roving the booths at the exhibit hall during the APEX 2012 EXPO, a sprawling event dedicated to exploring and, hopefully improving the airline passenger experience. The exhibit hall is bulging with booths dedicated to movies and other forms of in-flight entertainment and the technology with which that entertainment is delivered.
Here’s a sampling of some of the things that have caught my eye.
Hungry?
Stathis Kefallonitis of branding.aero and Nikos Loukas of inflighfeed.com offered a tasting workshop that explored how flavors and certain brands of food can strengthen an airline’s image and a passenger’s in-flight experience. (Disclosure: I made a dinner of the samples I was supposed to be evaluating during the workshop.)
Need a place for your PED?
Lots of people are traveling with their own portable electronic devices these days and the folks at Smart Tray have a booth with a simple-yet-elegant tray table design that has a slot in it to hold up these devices.
Cramped much?
Much of the in-flight entertainment being flogged consists of Hollywood films. But there are also a fair number of other offerings, including educational programming and wellness instructional videos from the likes of Uplifted, a company from Perth, Australia. In addition to an in-flight workout video, this company has a new in-flight exercise pamphlet that attaches to an upright tray table so you can follow along with the printed exercise instructions.