Singapore AVIATO wins AirAsia Airvolution Hackathon

SEPANG, 19 March 2017 – Aviato from Singapore have been crowned winners of AirAsia's first ever AIRVOLUTION.

At the end of the 18-hour hackathon in RedQ here, the team emerged with the best solution to the challenge - how to profile AirAsia fans based on their digital social footprint to improve customer experience.

Aviato's proposal allowed them to piece together a real-time user profile from Instagram pictures and likes, making it possible for more targeted offers of AirAsia destinations and food that reflected user interests.

The team comprised Singapore nationals Choo Yan Sheng, John Goh Choo Ern, Durwin Ho Hsu Tian, Albert Puah Beng Hong and Kevin Kwa Leung Boon.

For their winning effort, Aviato was awarded the grand prize of RM25,000 cash, 100,000 AirAsia BIG Points and five return flights to any AirAsia destination.

AirAsia BIG is AirAsia's loyalty programme where members earn BIG Points from AirAsia, Tune Hotels, Tune Talk and more than 100 other partners worldwide. BIG Members can redeem free AirAsia flights for as little as 500 BIG Points during AirAsia BIG's monthly Final Call sale as well as free Tune Hotel stays.

AirAsia Chief Data and Digital Officer Nikunj Shanti said, "We were really impressed by the creative problem-solving and technical knowledge on display this weekend. 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"

A total of 20 teams representing Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Australia took part in AIRVOLUTION 2017, which kicked off yesterday afternoon.

Their submissions, in the form of eight-minute live demos, were judged based on impact, creativity, design and execution in response to the challenge.

Judges included AirAsia Chief Data and Digital Officer Nikunj Shanti, AirAsia Group Chief Information Office Declan Hogan, AirAsia Head of Development Su Yu Min, AirAsia Head of Product Management Robin Low, C-ASEAN Thailand Managing Director Dr Karndee Leopairote and LINE Thailand Head of Strategy and New Services Kawin Tangudtaisak, among others.

During the hackathon, hackers were assisted by mentors from AirAsia's ICT department, as well as ServisHero Business Development Head Suresh Tan, MDEC Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership Programmes Head Azreena Azizan and Telekom Malaysia Innovation Lead Maznuddin Zainuddin, Innovation Lead.

AIRVOLUTION 2017 was sponsored by AirAsia BIG, AirAsia Santan, BIG Duty Free, Tune Talk, ROKKI, T&Co, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), Lego and Red Bull.