Iberia will again be the official airline of South Summit, to be held in Madrid on 1-4 October, a forum of start-ups, established companies and investors. Iberia took part in earlier summits in 2018 and this year in Malaga and Bogotá, and will also participate in the next, to be held in Mexico City.
This year, Iberia’s participation in South Summit is varied. To begin with, the airline helped select the 100 finalists in the contest organised by the forum from amongst 3,500 applications, and it will also serve on the jury selecting the winners. In addition, it will take part in the “Open Innovation Forum” on 1 October, and on the “Travel and Tourism” and Corporate Innovation” panels on 3 October.
“Our participation in South Summit enables us to make contact with start-ups and add more talent to Iberia for developing new products and services to improve our customers’ experience”, says Ignacio Tovar, Iberia’s Innovation and Digital Transformation Director. “Collaboration with start-ups allows us to design and execute these projects more quickly, while broadening horizons with companies unrelated to our industry.”
Iberia is also offering discounts and special conditions on Iberia flights between 25 September and 5 October for participants in the South Summit in Madrid. The discount will be 10% for Economy and 15% for Business tickets. They can be booked on iberia.com with the respective codes SOUTHSUMMIT19 and SOUTHSUMMITVIP.
Iberia is currently engaged in a digital transformation programme that includes a new 100% digital culture and experience with connected operations for its customers and employees, as well as a commitment to innovation and the search for new business opportunities linked to it.
In addition to its collaboration with South Summit, the airline is taking part in Hangar 51, the start-up acceleration programme of its parent company International Airlines Group (IAG). Its work with start-ups has already led to the development of the iBot chatbot on its app for mobile devices and on Messenger, along with the introduction of an on-board entertainment service using virtual reality glasses, Iberia’s presence in voice commerce via Alexa and Google Assistant, and the “Bag on Board” product, amongst other innovations.
