Michael Ross, Director, Commercial Development, Greater Toronto Airports Authority, Canada

Speaker Biograghy: Now in his seventh year at the GTAA, Mike has led the commercial team in the implementation of a retail and food and beverage transformation initiative. He is focused on bringing a world-class offer to Toronto Pearson, and during his tenure retail sales have doubled to exceed CA$400m. Mike has also developed and implemented a partnership strategy for Toronto Pearson Airport designed to enhance passenger experience and grow revenue. Successful corporate partnerships formed to date include CIBC, American Express, Coke and Samsung. Currently Mike is working in partnership with IDEO to develop an innovation agenda for Toronto Pearson, using Human Centred Design as a platform. Prior to joining the GTAA, Mike held senior marketing and merchandising roles with major retail brands including Canadian Tire, HBC and Rexall.


Day 1 - 20 March
Session: Customer Service & Passenger Experience

14:00 - 14:30 - 'I Am Toronto Pearson' – anatomy of an airport employee movement
Synopsis: Airport operators have goals that often require the cooperation and collaboration of several thousand people who work for myriad companies, each with their own objectives. How then might airports influence all airport employees to work towards a common goal? How might they encourage behaviour that puts passengers first, creating a more helpful and friendly experience? All too often the answer is to design and deploy ‘customer service training’ and mandate participation in the programme. This presentation will describe how a team at the Greater Toronto Airports Authority challenged this premise and seeded a movement called ‘I am Toronto Pearson’.

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Day 1 - 20 March
Session: Customer Service & Passenger Experience

14:30 - 15:30 - Panel Discussion: Brand versus Policies
Synopsis: The panel will have a rich dialogue with airlines and airports regarding their brands. It will discuss the importance of the brand. The audience will walk away from this discussion with the knowledge of how to be a voice for your brand, how to challenge the status quo to allow your brand to shine through, and immediate things you can start to do to align your brand with existing customer policy.

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Day 2 - 21 March
Session: Technology: Digital Transformation

09:05 - 09:35 - #digitaltranformation, #dx, #cool, #latestbuzzword, #whatisit?
Synopsis: Digital transformation is the latest buzzword that everyone is using in the airport world, but what does it really mean? Can vendors really sell digital transformation to airports? Can airports buy the latest and greatest technology to improve the passenger experience? This is not the path that Toronto Pearson took in its digital transformation programme. Digital transformation is not the what, it's the how. It is about finding the right partners and building the processes that help in creating, enabling and transforming the airport in a smart, forward-thinking way. We will share our story of how we did it differently.

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Day 3 - 22 March
Session: Commercial Development, Retail & Concessions

09:05 - 10:05 - Panel Discussion: Sense of place: value or voodoo?
Synopsis: This wide-ranging panel discussion will include a variety of viewpoints that will help attendees understand the whys and what works when it comes to creating sense of place in concession operations. Participants will include an airport concession manager, a small food service operator, a designer, a retail operator and an airport-focused style and fashion blogger. Does sense of place matter and, if so, how do/should different businesses express it? What do the public see and what do they care about? This panel discussion will answer these questions and more.

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