Speaker Details

Vera Jakobsen
Munich Airport / Flughafen München

Vera Jakobsen

As vice president of Munich Airport's digital unit, Vera is responsible for steering the group's digital strategy and innovation roadmap and coordinating the cross-divisional digital community. She drives corporate innovation, cross-functional digital projects, digital product management, data analytics, and process management with her team. By developing the airport’s digital channels, offers, and data basis, her overarching goal is to continuously improve the digital customer experience of Munich Airport.
Day - 2 - Technovation - 11:00 - 11:30

You think you're innovative? Think again

This presentation takes a bold approach, challenging conventional wisdom about what it means to innovate in complex, established industries like aviation. Through an engaging dialog, an insider with 12+ years of airport experience and an aviation newcomer bringing fresh perspectives will reveal the hard lessons they've learned about driving real change in an environment where risk often is not an option. Expect candid discussions on navigating resistance, avoiding superficial innovation and creating the conditions for lasting transformation.

The audience will learn:

  • How to set up, structure and focus your innovation strategy
  • Strategies for fostering an innovation environment by focusing on the underlying processes
  • Concrete tips for your innovation toolkit and some pitfalls to avoid when creating it
  • An (almost) outsider viewpoint on innovation at airports


Day - 2 - Commercial development – retail, F&B, concessions and experience - 09:00 - 17:30

Loyalty Hub Munich – jointly breaking new ground

Driven by the belief that collaboration unlocks customer benefits and commercial potential, Lufthansa Group, Munich Airport and the Miles & More loyalty program established the Loyalty Hub. The presentation uncovers the inner workings of this innovative trilateral partnership. Discover how an agile squad of experts in marketing, data analytics and retail collaborates to enhance the customer experience through data sharing and targeted marketing. The presenters will delve into the ideas that shaped this unique alliance, and reveal the results achieved and exciting use cases on the horizon.

The audience will learn:

  • How an airline, an airport and a loyalty program can collaborate to drive customer satisfaction and commercial potential
  • What working in an agile setup spanning three companies looks like
  • What's next: use cases on the horizon


Day - 2 - Technovation - 09:00 - 17:30

Airports for Innovation (A4I) – united to innovate

Airports for Innovation (A4I) is a global alliance of 10 leading airports worldwide, co-founded by Aena and Aeroporti di Roma, that share a common goal: to foster collaboration to improve passenger experience and airport operations, always with a more sustainable and innovative approach. We seek to promote joint innovative solutions that could be standardized and extended to other airports and adopted in the long term by the industry at large. For the first time ever, leading airports worldwide join forces to launch an international call for startups, where projects will have to be developed between several airports of the network.

The audience will learn:

  • Airports for Innovation (A4I) network: Aena, AdR, Athens, Nice, Munich, Dallas, Vancouver, Dubai, Oman and Tokyo airports
  • International collaboration between airports to solve common industry challenges
  • Joint call for startups
  • Pilot projects of the A4I network
  • Open innovation strategy in airports