Team Aviato from Singapore has taken the top prize in AIRVOLUTION 2017, AirAsia’s first hackathon, which set the challenge of profiling the airline’s fans based on their digital social footprint to improve customer experience.
The Singaporeans beat the other 19 teams at the end of the 18-hour event with the best solution to the problem – by piecing together real-time user profiles from Instagram pictures and likes to make for more targeted offers of AirAsia destinations that reflect user interests.
The winning team comprised Choo Yan Sheng, software developer at MindFi; Durwin Ho Hsu Tian, chief executive of Driven; John Goh Choo Ern, software developer at Driven; Albert Puah Beng Hong, co-founder of Learnly; and Kevin Kwa Leung Boon, founder of Stylo Industries.
Winners all – the Aviato team with AirAsia’s ladies in red.
For coming up with the best solution Aviato took home RM25,000 (US$5,648) cash, 100,000 AirAsia BIG Points (AirAsia’s loyalty programme) and five return flights to any AirAsia destination.
Nikunj Shanti, AirAsia chief data and digital officer, said he and the other judges were impressed by the creative problem-solving and technical knowledge displayed by all the competitors.
“The teams demonstrated some truly out-of-the-box thinking and we look forward to seeing more innovative ideas on how to make travel even better for our guests.”
AirAsia sees the hackathon as the first step in its evolution into a digital airline company, which supports the tech community in giving it a platform to explore new ideas, as well as to express their dreams through funding and guidance.
“AIRVOLUTION marks the start of the airline’s engagement with the tech community, which we see as a continuous two-way conversation where AirAsia has the opportunity to learn from the best and, in return, is able to offer support to great ideas we feel the world should know about,” said Aireen Omar, AirAsia CEO.
All smiles – the participating teams
The hackathon, with the theme ‘Spearheading Innovation in Asean’, ran over the March 18-19 weekend at AirAsia’s new corporate headquarter RedQ (Red Headquarters), which is located next to budget terminal klia2 in Sepang.
Twenty teams, each with five members, from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Australia took part. They were assisted by mentors from AirAsia’s ICT department, ServisHero, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and Telekom Malaysia innovation lead Maznuddin Zainuddin.
• All images credit: AirAsia
