Food for thought in Amadeus’ Lab of Ideas at IFTM Top Resa

During the last few years, visitors to Paris’ IFTM Top Resa, the leading travel trade show in France, were used to stopping by the Amadeus booth to take a look at the direction technology was taking in the travel sector.

This year, though, Amadeus France opted for the conceptual rather than the technological.

And this initiative – in partnership with IFTM – proved successful. Whilst professional visitors (trade and press) were familiar with Amadeus’ Digital Odyssey evolution (subject of the previous editions), this time they were submerged in a brand-new approach to stimulate discussion, open dialogue and set a new scenario for the travel sector’s  future.

And all this through three themes: think differently, change and innovate.

The Lab des !dées (Lab of Ideas) was launched with a group of heavyweight presenters.
 

The audience was able to get to know new paths for travel innovation through an open discussion with some of the people behind Amadeus’ leadership in this field: François Laburthe, Head of Innovation (“The holy grail of innovation is enabling your customers to innovate for you”); Rudy Daniello, Director of Product Management (“Travel agencies should be convenient, not just cheap”) and Denis Lacroix, VP Development and e-Commerce platforms (“It is easier to innovate in a constrained environment”).

The same forum of the Lab des !dées provided access to the experience of other thought leaders;

• Lauren Mathys, on the Blue Ocean Strategy (tomorrow’s leading companies will succeed not by battling competitors, but rather by creating “blue oceans” of uncontested market space ripe for growth).
• Arnaud Mourot, GM at Ashoka France, on new business models aimed at solving  different social problems.
• Guillaume Victor-Thomas, President of Ecotour.com, on low cost online travel agencies.
• Morald Chibut, GM at Autolib, on developing the world’s first service for electric car sharing.
• Cécile Poujade, Associate Director at Saguez & Partners, on brand identity for innovations.
• Author and philosopher Charles Pépin (a well-known face on French TV programmes) who made the audience travel back in time to find out that Epicurus and Jean-Paul Sartre both had something in common with innovation: they looked at reality with new eyes.