I know there are a few people coming back here looking for updates on the Horizons airline conference in San Francisco, but it really is proving tough to find time for proper updates during the event. If you want up to the minute news and thoughts from the Twitter crowd, search on #Horizons10.

The first day went well. Tom Kelley from Ideo did a great speech on innovation and gave a very topical example of the decline of the rubber tire (tyre) industry in his hometown of Akron, Ohio at the hands of a French innovator Michelin and their radial tires – very nice tie in to the Amadeus story whose main development centre is France.

My panel where I interviewed John Lonergan from Qantas and Jason Wynn from Amex on the topic of ancillary services seemed to be well received by what was a good few hundered people in attendance  – nice to get so many in the room when there were two others sessions running in other rooms at the same time, and a number of side meetings were also taking place. I was happy with the way it all went, although I suppose people only ever come up to you afterwards if they have something good to say, but it was rewarding to get a number of compliements on what was the first panel I have ever hosted at a conference – definitely helps to have some great talent on stage with me like I had!

Finally, if you want to see the original clip that I assume inspired the skit Dwayne Ingram used to introduce Philippe Chereque, I have embedded it below – very, very funny stuff.