APEX Tech 2026 Agenda
Explore sessions, speakers, and topics
Monday | 26 January 2026
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6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Ice Breaker Happy Hour
Tuesday | 27 January 2026
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8:00 am - 9:00 am
Registration & Coffee
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9:00 am - 9:10 am
Welcome & Opening Insights
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9:10 am - 9:40 am
Keynote Address: Integrating Intelligence - Data-Driven Blueprint for IFE & Connectivity
In this keynote, Andrés Castañeda Ochoa, Chief Digital and Customer Experience Officer at Aeroméxico, outlines how AI and enterprise data strategies are reshaping the future of inflight connectivity and entertainment. He will share how integrated intelligence across operations, customer touchpoints, and onboard systems enables more personalized, reliable, and revenue-generating digital experiences. Attendees will gain a forward-looking blueprint for turning data into real-time value in the connected cabin.
Andrés Castañeda OchoaAeroméxicoChief Digital and Customer Experience Officer -
9:40 am - 10:35 am
From Strategy to Seatback: How Airlines Are Shaping the Next Era of Connected Entertainment
Airline leaders share how connectivity and content fit into their broader passenger experience, brand, and revenue strategies. This panel will explore how airlines are evaluating new technologies, balancing cost and performance, and integrating connectivity with entertainment, loyalty, and onboard services. Attendees will gain insight into how real-world airline priorities are shaping the next phase of inflight digital ecosystems.
Joe LeaderAPEXCEO
Anjali BirlaAir IndiaVice President – CX Strategy & Intelligence
Mark CheyneyIAGIFEC Strategy, Ops and Performance Manager
Sheryl Prabha ShibuWestJetProgram Manager - Cabin Entertainment & Connectivity -
10:35 am - 11:20 am
Speed Networking & Coffee Break
Sponsored by: West Entertainment
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11:20 am - 12:15 pm
The Latest in IFC - Is LEO Going to Eat Everyone's Lunch
This panel will examine the rapid advances in Low Earth Orbit satellite connectivity, spotlighting real-world airline deployments that redefine inflight internet performance. Leaders will explore how emerging LEO solutions, alongside established GEO and MEO providers, are transforming passenger experience, operational efficiency and competitive positioning across diverse fleets. Discussion will address whether LEO’s speed, reliability and scalability position it to surpass or integrate with traditional geostationary, medium Earth orbit and hybrid IFC models in commercial aviation.
Mary KirbyRunway Girl NetworkFounder, Editor and Publisher
Bill MilroyThinkomChairman and CTO
Philippe SchleretTelesatVice President, Aviation
Brian SimoneViasatVP of Global Aviation Partners & Service Delivery -
12:15 pm - 12:45 pm
Keynote Address: Delta at Full Power: How Customer-Centric Technology and IFEC Help Drive the Best Margins in US Aviation
This APEX TECH keynote positions Delta Air Lines as the industry reference point for how customer centric culture, disciplined technology strategy, and IFEC leadership translate directly into sustained profitability. At a moment when much of the industry debates experience versus economics, Delta demonstrates how the two reinforce each other, delivering the strongest margins among US airlines while continuing to raise the bar for passengers.
This session connects the event’s technical discussions to real world airline execution. Delta’s approach shows how cabin technology, connectivity, content, and data platforms function not as isolated systems, but as a coordinated operating model that supports reliability, brand consistency, and financial performance at scale.
In this interactive Q&A, Joseph Eddy shares how Delta’s newest cabin and IFEC initiatives reflect applied innovation rather than experimentation. The conversation explores how Delta designs technology choices around people first, both customers and frontline teams, ensuring every advancement can scale across fleet types, geographies, and service models without introducing friction or operational risk.
A core focus of the discussion examines how Delta’s onboard digital ecosystem supports the profitability flywheel. Fast, free connectivity for SkyMiles Members, tightly integrated seatback experiences, and loyalty aware engagement create a continuous relationship between the passenger and the airline in flight. These capabilities enable personalization, partner value creation, and diversified revenue growth while preserving the premium experience Delta customers expect.
Dr. Joe Leader will guide the dialogue to highlight the leadership decisions that differentiate Delta’s model. Rather than chasing novelty, Delta emphasizes integration, reliability, and long term return on invested capital. Cabin and IFEC strategy serve as enablers of broader airline priorities, including loyalty growth, operational resilience, and margin expansion.
This interactive keynote discussion delivers a clear APEX TECH takeaway. Airline profitability leadership in the next decade will come from aligning people, platforms, and passenger experience into a single system that scales. Delta “at full power” demonstrates how customer centric thinking, executed through technology and IFEC strategy, drives the best margins in US aviation while setting the standard the rest of the industry measures against.
Joseph EddyDelta Air LinesDirector, Cabin & IFEC Programs -
12:45 pm - 1:45 pm
Lunch Break
Sponsored by: West Entertainment
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1:45 pm - 3:15 pm
Workshop: In-Flight Connectivity Disruption - From GEO to LEO and the Hybrid Horizon Group
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3:15 pm - 3:45 pm
Coffee Break
Sponsored by: Panasonic
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3:45 pm - 4:30 pm
Inflight Touchpoints in the Digital Ecosystem: Advancing Integration and Intelligence
Sponsored by: Thales
As inflight entertainment becomes a fully connected, data-driven ecosystem, display systems act as intelligent digital interfaces. This session brings together technical experts to discuss the engineering priorities shaping next-generation inflight screens from system integration and digital architecture to content synchronization, software-driven personalization, and performance optimization. Explore how advancements in display control, power efficiency, and connectivity standards are enabling smarter, lighter, and more adaptable inflight experiences that align with the broader digital cabin vision.
Mary KirbyRunway Girl NetworkFounder, Editor and Publisher
Ben AsmarSafranVice President, Products and Strategy
Kevin ClarkBluebox AvionicsCEO
Andy MassonPanasonicSenior Vice President, Product Management and Strategy
Jon NorrisThalesDirector of Marketing Operations
Laura RoesgesAirFi.aeroCEO -
4:30 pm - 5:15 pm
Edge Caching and Streaming - Focus on Supply Chain Technology, Standards, Market Dynamics, and Technical Implications of Different Business Models
Sponsored by: Safran
Over time, as connectivity bandwidth increases and its costs decrease, less content will be locally-cached on the aircraft and more content will be delivered from the cloud. Emerging delivery methods codified by the Streaming Video Technology Association (SVTA), with whom APEX enjoys a liaison relationship, will enable faster deployment of content to the aircraft, and offer content providers the ability to have greater control over both prioritization of content in the supply chain, and management of the business models. But are those business models changing? Is the concept of “consumers provide the content, airlines provide the pipe” premature? Where will the technology and business models intersect, and what does that mean for the future of IFE?
Joe LeaderAPEXCEO
Glenn GonzalesSidenHead of Business Development and Partnerships
Clare JoseySafranSenior Director, Passenger Services
Isaac StasevichQuviaAviation Product Manager
Dimitrios TsirangelosSpafaxVice President Business Development IFE Technology & Innovation
Ralph WagnerAxinomCEO -
5:15 pm - 5:30 pm
Day 1 Wrap-Up & Feedback
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6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Networking Reception
Sponsored by: Spafax
Join fellow APEX members and TECH attendees for an engaging networking event with drinks, light appetizers, and great conversations.
Wednesday | 28 January 2026
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9:00 am - 9:10 am
Welcome & Opening Insights
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9:10 am - 9:40 am
Keynote Address: United’s Kinective Media: Turning Passenger Satisfaction into Major Airline NPS and RASM Increases
This APEX TECH keynote examines how United Airlines has paired the fastest expansion of inflight entertainment in the industry with a fundamentally new approach to passenger engagement and monetization, grounded in United’s purpose of Connecting People. Uniting the World. Today, United operates the world’s largest inflight entertainment footprint, with more seatback IFE screens than any airline globally, transforming the cabin into a high scale, high trust digital environment that supports both passenger satisfaction and revenue growth while connecting passengers physically and virtually.
United’s unprecedented investment in IFEC did not focus solely on hardware deployment. The strategy centered on redefining what those screens represent. Each screen functions as a personal digital gateway into the United ecosystem and beyond, supporting entertainment, commerce, loyalty, and partner engagement in a way that feels natural to the passenger journey. Rather than a step back from life on the ground, the inflight experience becomes a continuation of it, creating a consistent, premium, screen based experience across more aircraft, more routes, and more passenger segments than anywhere else in the world.
Kinective Media sits at the center of this transformation. It acts as the connective layer that brings United’s data driven decision making, already used across routes, service, and content, directly into the passenger experience. Built on top of United’s massive IFE expansion, the platform leverages first party data, journey context, and passenger intent to deliver interactions that feel useful rather than intrusive. Instead of treating scale as an excuse for volume advertising, United uses its unmatched screen footprint to deliver fewer, smarter, and more relevant moments that passengers actively engage with.
Moderated by APEX Group CEO Dr. Joe Leader, this thirty minute keynote features Managing Director Strategic Partnerships Mike Petrella in a deeply execution focused conversation on how United aligned IFEC growth, passenger trust, and commercial performance. The session explores how United’s leadership in seatback IFE creates a foundation for consistent NPS improvement while unlocking new forms of high yield, non ticket revenue, including meaningful moments passengers may not have otherwise considered, from loyalty education and credit card engagement to pre arrival services and partner integrations that fit naturally into their trip.
A significant portion of the discussion focuses on how this industry leading IFE scale becomes even more powerful when paired with next generation connectivity enabled through Starlink. High bandwidth and low latency remove the remaining constraints on what those millions of screens can deliver. Always on connectivity eliminates the traditional inflight disconnect, creating a living room in the sky that mirrors passenger expectations, behaviors, and digital habits on the ground. Kinective Media evolves from a programmed inflight product into a living, responsive platform that adapts in real time to passenger behavior, preferences, and journey context.
This session positions United Airlines as the reference model for the next era of IFEC. It demonstrates how owning the largest screen footprint in aviation is not simply a hardware milestone, but a strategic advantage when paired with the right media philosophy. United shows the industry how IFEC scale, next generation connectivity, and passenger trust can reinforce one another, driving sustained NPS growth and high yield monetization without compromising the passenger experience.
Mike PetrellaUnited AirlinesManaging Director, Strategic Partnerships -
9:40 am - 9:55 am
APEX FlightTrack Project Update
APEX FlightTrack will deliver the first complete, tail number specific, globally auditable reporting structure for licensed inflight content usage, enabling accurate 2025 retro billing and verifiable reporting for 2026 onwards.
Jon NorrisDirector of APEX STREAM & APEX FlightTrack -
9:55 am - 10:40 am
From Studio to Screen: Managing Rights within the Future Content Mix
The rise of passenger-centric content delivery, supported by modern streaming capabilities, is reshaping priorities across the media and entertainment landscape. Cloud-based distribution is expanding opportunities to bring content to travelers while navigating increasingly complex licensing rights. APEX is working to define a distribution architecture that enables content owners to enforce preferred licensing rights and business models, while still meeting evolving passenger expectations. Will IFE move toward a more direct, passenger-driven experience or will it remain anchored in a B2B licensing environment? Join us for a conversation that could redefine the paradigm.
Joshua KupietzkyAPEX MediaJournalist
Sam AllenStellar EntertainmentCEO
Sonali AmarasinghamInflight DublinVP of Business Development
Simon CuthbertAnuvuVP, Licensing Programming & Distribution
Kate GrothWest EntertainmentPresident
Carlos MartinezConetic GroupHead of Sales -
10:40 am - 11:15 am
Speed Networking & Coffee Break
Sponsored by: ABOVE
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11:15 am - 12:45 pm
Workshop: From Studio to Screen: Managing Rights within the Future Content Mix
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12:45 pm - 1:45 pm
Lunch Break
Sponsored by: Panasonic
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1:45 pm - 2:30 pm
Engineering the Next Generation of Connected Travel – Performance, Data Integration, and Intelligent IFEC Systems
Sponsored by: Reaktor
This session dives deep into the engineering behind the next evolution of inflight connectivity and entertainment systems. Experts will examine how advanced technology, next-generation portals, and cloud-based architectures are redefining digital engagement onboard. Discussion topics include the use of smart metadata, EIDR and Ad-ID frameworks, and edge caching to enable low-latency content delivery, targeted advertising, and real-time personalization. Panelists will also explore how data integration across aircraft networks, cloud environments, and ground systems can optimize bandwidth utilization, accelerate content distribution, and increase the precision of ad and ecommerce analytics. Attendees will gain insight into how these technical advancements are shaping a scalable, data-driven IFEC ecosystem that enhances both passenger experience and airline revenue performance.
Satu DahlInflight MagazineEditor
Walter BerggrenReaktor AeroHead of IFEC Engineering
Cyril JeanPXComCEO
Premjith ManapettyAir IndiaHead, IFEC, Digital & Tech
Mark WrightSpafaxGlobal SVP of Business Development -
2:30 pm - 3:15 pm
Evolving the Non-Theatrical Ecosystem: Rights, Content, and Collaboration
At APEX EXPO, airline leaders heard directly from Sony, Paramount, BBC, and Disney as they shared how licensed rights implementation will reshaping inflight entertainment and the broader non-theatrical ecosystem. Those discussions reinforced a clear reality for aviation. Content remains the most powerful driver of passenger engagement, trust, and differentiation onboard.
Warner Bros. Discovery SVP Content Sales IFE Syndication Esdra Lamy, an APEX Board of Directors member and widely respected industry futurist, advances our APEX EXPO dialogue further at APEX TECH. Representing the most sought-after major studios in Hollywood today, Warner Bros. Discovery, Esdra brings a strategic perspective shaped by global studio priorities, evolving streaming platforms such as MAX, and the evolution of fully licensed non-theatrical distribution.
This one-on-one keynote reframes inflight entertainment at a pivotal moment. As streaming platforms influence consumer behavior on the ground, airlines face growing pressure to mirror at home experiences onboard in a fully licensed manner. This session challenges that assumption, reinforcing why curated, rights compliant, and purpose built IFEC continues to outperform open streaming models in engagement, satisfaction, and brand impact.
Anchored in the APEX TECH mission of applied innovation, the conversation explores how studios are rethinking non-theatrical rights, windowing, and collaboration in a post streaming first world. It examines how airlines and content partners can evolve delivery models that protect content value, respect regulatory boundaries, and align with changing passenger expectations while keeping fully licensed content firmly at the center of the inflight experience.
This session positions inflight content not as a commodity, but as a strategic asset. Through Esdra Lamy’s vision at Warner Bros. Discount with his APEX board level and future focused lens, attendees will gain a more definitive view on how content leadership, connectivity evolution, and thoughtful curation must move together to ensure inflight entertainment remains premium, trusted, and commercially sustainable for the next era of global aviation.
Joe LeaderAPEXCEO
Esdra LamyWarner Bros. DiscoverySVP Content Sales, IFE, Syndication -
3:15 pm - 3:45 pm
Keynote Address: Air India in Transformation: Engineering a New Global Airline Through Customer Experience Strategy, Technology, and Cultural Reset
This APEX TECH keynote offers a rare inside view into one of the most ambitious airline transformations underway anywhere in the world. Air India is not pursuing incremental improvement. It is rebuilding the airline end to end, redefining customer experience, technology architecture, and organizational mindset in parallel as it reclaims its position as a leading global carrier.
Anchoring the program with a distinctly different lens, this session focuses on how Air India approaches change at national airline scale. The transformation spans fleet renewal, brand reinvention, service culture, and digital modernization, but the differentiator lies in how these elements converge around the customer. Air India’s strategy recognizes that technology alone does not create loyalty.
Progress depends on aligning systems, people, and decision making around a shared customer truth. In this interactive Q&A, Anjali Birla shares how Air India is building a modern customer intelligence and customer experience strategy framework capable of supporting rapid growth while restoring trust and pride in the brand. The discussion explores how customer experience strategy and IFEC modernization integrate with broader digital platforms, data infrastructure, and organizational change programs, ensuring that innovation remains executable across regions, aircraft types, and service models.
A central theme of the session examines how Air India is rethinking the role of inflight experience within a global transformation agenda. IFEC, connectivity, and onboard digital touchpoints function as catalysts for consistency, learning, and engagement across a diverse long haul and regional network. Rather than positioning onboard technology as a standalone product, Air India treats it as a signal of intent, reinforcing service standards, cultural reset, and passenger expectations across every journey.
Moderated by APEX Group CEO Dr. Joe Leader, the conversation connects Air India’s progress to the broader APEX TECH mission of applied innovation. It highlights the leadership choices required to modernize at scale, balance speed with stability, and align global ambition with local execution.
This keynote discussion delivers a powerful counterpoint within the APEX TECH agenda. While many airlines optimize mature systems, Air India demonstrates how transformation begins when customer experience strategy, technology platforms, and organizational culture move forward together. The session positions Air India as one of the most consequential case studies in global aviation, offering lessons not only in technology deployment, but in how airlines rebuild relevance, confidence, and competitive strength for the next era.
Anjali BirlaAir IndiaVice President – CX Strategy & Intelligence -
3:45 pm - 4:00 pm
Coffee Break
Sponsored by: Panasonic
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4:00 pm - 4:45 pm
Audio & LMT Working Groups
This session offers an opportunity for interested members to weigh in on the activities of two current APEX working groups, and the possibility of adding new working groups. The two working group sessions listed below will run concurrently, allowing participants to choose the session that best aligns with their interests.
– The Smart Metadata Working Group/LMT
Chaired by Andy Beer, this WG has completed its outstanding and extensive work to adopt the Language Metadata Table (LMT) for our industry, a major step forward in uniform content identification protocols. (Thanks, Andy, and team!) A proposed specification, attached hereto, will be reviewed and a vote taken to adopt. If the motion passes, the specification will be reviewed by the Technology Committee and submitted to the Board. Members may comment on the specification online prior to TECH as well as discuss the specification during TECH.– Audio Working Group
APEX’s audio specifications are significantly out of date. The aircraft is a unique environment for audio, challenged by the sonic effect of the engines. Video masters can be delivered with audio tracks either in “composite” form or “component” form. “Component” refers to delivery of the audio with separate dialogue, music and effects tracks enabling the substitution of an alternate language as well as raising the level the dialogue, lowering the music and effects, to improve dialogue clarity.A ”composite” track delivers dialogue, music and effects pre-mixed to a certain specification. This usually means that the mix is a theatrical mix with dialogue low and music and effects high for a pristine theatrical environment. Such a mix frequently makes dialogue difficult to understand. Various means of dynamic range compression have been proposed over the years, most requiring component DME, but some professing to be able to have some effect using composite DME. Various new technologies may have emerged since the last APEX audio specification. Members interested in chairing, co-chairing, or participating are encouraged to notify APEX headquarters. Active participation by content providers, DXP providers and post-production providers is needed.
Non-members
Subject matter experts (SMEs) who are not APEX members may participate in these working groups and in these specific TECH sessions with Technology Committee approval.Registration
APEX members who are not registered for TECH may participate in these sessions only without a registration fee, but must still register, and will not be permitted to other TECH sessions. -
4:45 pm - 5:30 pm
4K and Edge Caching Working Groups
This session offers an opportunity for interested members to weigh in on the possibility of adding new working groups. The two working group sessions listed below will run concurrently, allowing participants to choose the session that best aligns with their interests.
– 4K Working Group
As airlines have shown interest in having 4K content onboard, a number of issues have arisen. First, how do we define “4K”? It has been reported that some orders for 4K have been fulfilled by upconverting an HD master. Should there be a 4K specification that defines the deliverables and establishes criteria for source material in the supply chain? What kind/size of displays are capable of actually producing a 4K image that is distinguishable from a lower standard? What are the file sizes and what are the implications as to storage limitations onboard? What are the increased security requirements of 4K? Members interested in various levels of participation should notify APEX headquarters. Active participation on the part of content providers is essential, along with that of DXP providers, post-production providers, and others.– Edge Caching Working Group
During the last several years, the APEX Technology Committee has looked into the convergence of IFE and connectivity, and a migration path for content delivery that sees a reduction of content stored on the aircraft and an increase in content delivered to the aircraft externally. APEX has a liaison relationship with the Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA) that gives us access to the SVTA specification; a number of APEX members are active in the SVTA Edge Caching Working Group. A potential APEX Edge Caching Working Group might leverage this liaison relationship and consider, among other things, whether an IFE profile in the existing SVTA specification isa way to proceed. Participation by edge caching providers, DXP providers, content providers, and post-production providers is needed.Non-members
Subject matter experts (SMEs) who are not APEX members may participate in these working groups and in these specific TECH sessions with Technology Committee approval.Registration
APEX members who are not registered for TECH may participate in these sessions only without a registration fee, but must still register, and will not be permitted to other TECH sessions. -
5:30 pm - 5:45 pm
Day 2 Wrap-Up & Feedback
Speaker Directory