by Chevroth, Airport Experience News
Brian Solis delivers the keynote speech Airport Experience Conference in Orlando, Florida. Below is a summary of his presentation, “Digital Disruption and the Post-Pandemic Consumer.” Following his speech, Brian also signed a copy of his bestseller,”X: Experience when business meets design. “
AXC keynote Solis advises brands to redesign airport experience
Special Coverage: AX Conference 2022
Brian Solis, a Salesforce digital analyst, anthropologist, and global innovation evangelist, took the stage as a keynote speaker at the 2022 Airport Experience Conference to discuss the evolution of technology in a post-COVID world and the needs of customers.
“I spend a lot of time researching each industry and predicting how it will change,” Solis said. He describes the process of creating something new and the two conditions under which this process can occur. “There are two moments of true innovation: the aha moment, where I have an idea and I’m excited to make it happen; and then there’s the uh-oh moment—the global pandemic, the customer changes, and our competitors outpace us in terms of innovation. The latter situation is not ideal, but the writing on the wall has been there for a while, he said.
“The last two years have been dramatic,” he said. “But they just accelerated what’s happened over the past two decades.”
Especially at airports, he says, he feels there’s a lot of room for real innovation because “in travel, airports are rarely part of the experience.” Of course, these days, a fast food restaurant and convenience store are the only options when passing through an airport. Gone are the days. Still, Solis said, “there are a lot of things that get in the way of creativity.”
A lot of times, “We’re business first, we’re financial first, we’re stakeholder and shareholder first; the consumer is evolving every day. At some point, the consumer will say, ‘I have a choice, I will Exercise those options.'” He said there was a chasm between businesses and customers.
“Investing time and money to keep up with change closes the gap between businesses and consumers,” he said. “We have to find opportunities to invest in new experiences when we know we’re going to get a return from those experiences.”
Solis said the global airport community has developed new ways to understand what people want and what needs to change. “[Singapore] Changi Airport (SIN) is magical, immersive, innovative and modern – that’s what I see and what other travelers say. It feels spacious and the exact opposite of all the anxiety we experience in airports around the world. “
Among other collaborative efforts with tenants, SIN has a program they call DIVA – Digital, Innovation, Venture Capital and Analytics, Solis explained. This marketing move creates an avenue for Changi franchisees and partners to develop exciting and engaging promotional strategies to drive travelers across the airport to their businesses.
“Iteration is often confused with innovation,” says Solis. “Iteration is not a bad thing. We need it, we always need to keep improving what already exists; but it’s not enough – innovation is creating net new value. It didn’t exist before, and as that value persists, it may will cause damage.
“Start with the experience we want people to have, and then work backwards to what our strategy will be,” he added.
Ultimately, Solis emphasized the importance of seeing the future: potential.
“The future doesn’t exist yet,” he said. “We have a say in how it unfolds. … The future will happen because what you do will be different.”
