As thousands descended upon ExCel London for the World Aviation Fesitvals’s first in-person event since 2019 the excitement and emotions were palpable. 

From the myriad of vendor booths, keynotes, and presentations, the conference covered every industry issue and theme one could expect. Pent-up traveler demand is real. Embrace better technology. Sustainability is critical. Innovation must be scaled. Greater customized offerings around the customer. Loyalty is a gamechanger. And so on and so forth. 

As our first industry event (but certainly not our first conference), we were keen on jumping in on these conversations, sharing what we’ve been building over the past 14 months, and connecting deeper with other innovators and industry tastemakers. 
So we booked tickets from San Francisco (WAF generously gave us free exhibitor passes), printed some business cards, created slick leaflets, and put together an easily digestible demo of the Farel system. 

Our signage “Put Your Airline on Autopilot” attracted a lot of attention and inquiry. It served as provocatively vague enough to invite further discussion. These discussions were overwhelmingly validating from both airlines and other vendors. 

By estimation, we spoke with around 150 people from airlines, airports, and other travel techs. Most of the questions/feedback can be summarized around the following three themes: 

1. Is this really a real product? 
2. Did you build all this in one year? 
3. Seems very simple to use. 

By the end of the conference, we were able to combine these questions into a neatly packaged response. “This is actually a real, all-in-one solution, built over a year that’s insanely easy to use. Can I show you how it works?” By combining several different applications within one single platform with the speed and intuitiveness demanded by the 21st century, airlines took note. Positive feedback from FlyDubai, Lufthansa, and Emirates showed us that the future will look much more like Farel - simplicity, scalability, analytics, UX clarity, and flexibility. 

So in reflection, the conference was a success and was well represented by team Farel. We considered this the first public unveiling of our solution. Ultimately, we’ve been emboldened by where the future of the industry is headed and extremely excited to see what more can be unlocked through the power of software. 

We look forward to the future and extend a big thank you to the organizers of WAF for putting together such an event amidst such uncertainty.