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ICEbreaker

September 2019

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

This month’s articles include the opportunity of real-time tourism, 12 soft skills to secure your promotion, and peruse the Wildlife Photographer of the Year in your coffee break.

A big highlight for us this month was The Seatrade Awards. It was an honour and privilege to be principle sponsor for this important industry event. Big congratulations to everyone who took part and all the winners who stood out in a crowded field. We also enjoyed a Meyer Werft shipyard tour organised by CLIA just before Seatrade Europe. Before that fantastic event our co-founder, Conor Byrne, sat down with Travolution to discuss a topic seemingly on everyone's lips, GDPR - you can read that article here.

This month, we’re clocking up our air miles with lots of travel to Miami and elsewhere. Some of you may actually be in a position to say hello to Conor, who’ll be speaking at an event for cruise line executives in Miami from 8th-10th October. Meanwhile, Richie is looking forward to moderating a panel at the International Cruise Summit in Madrid at the end of November..

Until then,

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


CLIA_CrimeInfog_Jun2019
"To be clear, the success of women in business is not at the cost of men: It is about attracting, retaining, recognizing and promoting talent without a gender bias. After all, promoting and valuing different points of view leads to better financial outcomes for companies"

Traci Mercer, senior vice president, Global Lodging, Ground & Sea, Sabre Travel Network. At a time when just 33 CEOs on the Fortune 100 list are female and just 20% of all tech jobs are held by women.

Source: Phocuswire.com

$5 billion
The annual checked bag fees for US Airlines which helps them save $375 million in tax.

Source: Forbes
Story 1
With the SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) coming into force on 14 September, the travel industry must ensure online transactions are authenticated using two of three factors. Something the customer knows (PIN or password), something the customer has (device or hardware token) and something the customer is (through facial recognition or fingerprints). More...
Story 2
With cyber security yielding a staggering 691,000,000 results on Google, and Google Trends data revealing that cyber security is more commonly searched for than cruise holidays, CRIBB Cyber Security’s very own Patrick Carolan explains why cyber security is at the forefront of minds at the moment. More...
Story 3
Looking to secure your next promotion? Yes, industry-specific skills are important but don’t forget the other stuff. The secret lies in developing 12 soft skills including resilience, agility, negotiation and written communication. See you in the boardroom. More...
Story 4
Business story gold. The top twenty business transformations from the last decade handpicked by the Harvard Business Review. Judged on new growth, repositioning the core and financials. Be inspired. More...
Story 5
Engaging with tourists at the right time with the right information offers a powerful competitive advantage. Read best practice from ski resort Laax, whose mobile app had 92,000 active users in the 2018/19 season who used the app on average 42 times. Yep, it’s that big an opportunity. More...
Story 6
Everyone’s very excited about the potential of voice with Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon planning to spend an estimated $750 trillion dollars to develop the technology. A big hurdle for the travel industry given the popularity of smartphones is that voice assistants on phones have the lowest customer satisfaction. Read on for lots more voice facts and figures. More...
Story 7

Microsoft has released an emergency update for its Internet Explorer browser. It has warned that attackers could hijack a web browser and use their access to install malware. If you use versions 9-11, download and apply the software bug patch asap. More...

Cruise Awards Winners post
It was an honour and a privilege to be a principal sponsor of the prestigious Seatrade Cruise Awards. Congratulations to all the well-deserved winners who fought off fierce competition from a record number of entries. Read on for our report of the event. More...
Story 9
Because we’re not all about work, work, work….Sit back, relax and enjoy the highlights of The Wildlife Photographer of the Year. We’re quite taken by the sleeping seal and the zombie beetle. You’re welcome. More...

We are Ian Richardson and Conor Byrne, the founders of ICE, an IT consultancy that specializes in the cruise and travel industry. We're sending you our monthly newsletter ICEbreaker because we already work for you, or because we'd love to have a conversation with you. Please email us if you'd like to get in touch. 

Ian Richardson Conor Bryne
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