ICEbreaker, May 2018

Hello and welcome to our monthly newsletter, ICEbreaker from ICE, the independent travel technology consultants.

This month’s highlights include robotic dogs, Uber’s aerial taxi service and the problem with passwords.

This won’t be the first newsletter you’ve received this month that talks about GDPR. However, we’re delighted that in line with our GDPR readiness we’ve achieved IASME certification and Cyber Essentials, this is largely thanks to our independent data governance auditor, CRIBB Cyber Security, which has also been supporting many other companies around GDPR over the last few months. And in case, you still want to know more, we’ve included a number of interesting articles around privacy and data security in this month’s newsletter.

We’d like to offer a warm welcome to John McAndrew, who joins our commercial team this month. A lot of you have been asking us about TheICEway, so we’re writing a series of blogs outlining our thinking and approach. You can read the first, Guinness, hard work and integrity below. We’ll give you a clue. It’s a story about two men in a pub bonding over pints of Guinness and the importance of integrity. Sound familiar?

Until then, 

Ian Richardson (Richie) and Conor Byrne
(ICE's founders)

Quote Of The Month

  “Pints of the black stuff at lunchtime is no longer on the menu!”

 Ian Richardson, co-founder of ICE, tells the story of how it all began with a pint of the black stuff and a shared idea about integrity.

Find out more HERE.

Number Of The Month

One Minute

- 38 million messages, 187 million emails, 3.7 million search queries

What happens in an internet minute?

Articles Of The Month

Password? 12345

89% of travel websites leave their users’ accounts “perilously exposed to hackers”, thanks to unsafe passwords, according to the Travel Website Password Rankings. Within the travel space the cruise industry had the worst scores. Airbnb was the only company to received a perfect 5/5 score.

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Biometric Speeds Up Gatwick Boarding

Gatwick Airport and easyJet are trialing new self-boarding biometric technology where personal data collected at self-service bag drops will inform new automated self-boarding gates speeding up the process to less than 20 seconds.

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Run, Robot, Run!

Fascinating video from Boston Dynamics showing their robots on the move from robotic dogs who use mapping tech to navigate to surprisingly elegant log jumping robots. You’re welcome.

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Using Tech To Scale A Travel Business

Technology, technology, technology is the key to scaling a travel business. From smarter working to efficiency and automated platforms, technology will help you maximize your time.

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Would You Pay For Ad-Free Internet

The scandal surrounding privacy and data and Cambridge Analytica is questioning the fundamental business model behind the internet. Digital advertising has lost credibility, say critics, and unless it’s sorted out we could all end up paying for online content.

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Forget Agile, It's All About Continuous Development

Another good read from the Harvard Business Review. Remember how agile overhauled innovation? There’s a new kid in town. Continuous Development started in the world of software updates. Is it going to change the world?

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Twitter Bug

An internal leak forced Twitter to encourage users to change their passwords following a problem that stored security words in plain text. That’s 330 million users who were being urged to change passwords.

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Smart Luggage Closed Down

Two smart luggage companies have been forced to close down following new airline rules that say batteries in suitcases have to be removable. Smart luggage needs batteries to charge its apps such as location awareness and weight sensors.

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Uber's Flying Taxis

Uber is working with aircraft manufacturers including Embraer and Aurora Flight Sciences to develop its ambitious aerial taxi service. Some of the concepts look as if they’ve flown straight out of Star Wars.