Did you miss the Winners Webinar?
Oct. 3, 2022, 2:30 p.m. PDT by Natalie York
Thank you to all those that tuned in for our Winners Webinar! If you missed it, watch below:
As the metaverse grows and matures, it has the potential to change how we interact and experience just about everything - including travel. In the broadest sense, the metaverse is an embodiment of the internet as a virtual or digital world that is experienced through the use of digital tools, including augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR). Many people already dabble in the metaverse by playing games and/or socializing. But businesses are increasingly probing this new space for its potential to enhance our real life experiences. If you’ve ever wondered how the digital world could improve the travel experience, then this challenge is for you.
Airbus is the manufacturer of some of the world’s most innovative commercial aircraft and is a global leader in the aerospace industry. They have a long history of experimenting with and adopting new technologies, and they want to hear your ideas for how the metaverse can be used to provide better services and experiences for passengers traveling by air.
This challenge is open to anyone with a good idea for how Airbus can use the metaverse to improve the passenger experience. Five winners will share in a $30,000 prize purse for their compelling ideas.
The metaverse is suddenly everywhere, and everyone is getting involved! Like many other new technologies, the possibilities seem endless. Sometimes it’s hard to get past all the hype to envision the tangible ways that it can impact your industry or specific area.
Airbus is just starting to explore this new space. With this challenge, we are tapping into the power of the crowd to understand some of the potential of the metaverse, specifically with respect to the passenger’s door-to-door experience. We are looking for immersive, experiential ways in which a passenger can interact with the metaverse during the travel process. Ideally, we would like submitted ideas to be supported by some sort of proof of concept, such as a short executable or a video walkthrough. If you’re an experienced developer, show us your chops! But if you’re new to this and have an idea, we also want to hear from you. In that case, you can help us see your vision through other visualization tools, such as story-boarding or animation.
We are open to anything that improves a passenger’s experience, whether your idea provides a new way to complete a task, increases accessibility, or offers a service that was previously not available . Examples of ways in which the metaverse could impact the travel process include:
These suggested starting points are meant to inspire you and represent just a small glimpse of the possibilities. Although we don’t expect a fully-built out experience, we do need to see enough detail in your submission to understand its potential feasibility, functionality, and any possible roadblocks. Your submission should include a description of benefits and advantages provided by your idea, some sort of visualization of your ideas - like a short video walkthrough or a storyboard, and optionally an executable file or a link to your experience.
Airbus will recognize five winners with a total prize purse of $30,000. The team submitting the most compelling vision for how the metaverse can improve the passenger experience will win $10,000, and four other teams will win $5000 each.
| Prize | Award | Total |
| First place (1 winner) | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| Second place (4 winners) | $5000 | $20,000 |
Total prize purse | $30,000 | |
Open to Submissions: April 26, 2022
Submission Deadline: June 14, 2022 @ 5pm ET
Judging: June 14 - July 12, 2022
Winners Announced: July 19, 2022 Winners announcement date updated to September 13, 2022
To be eligible for an award, your submission must, at minimum:
You may submit up to five unique entries. If you submit more, only the first five entries will be reviewed. Each entry requires a unique proof of concept.
| Section | Description | Overall Weight |
| User Experience | The approach is easy to understand and intuitive to use. The intent is well-communicated to Airbus. It creates a transformative experience for the user:
| 35 |
| Potential impact on commercial aviation and/or Airbus | The concept improves the travel experience or associated processes for passengers, airline personnel, and/or other stakeholders. It adds value to the passenger’s experience. For example, a solution with a strong impact on commercial aviation could improve the flight experience for passengers, increase the efficiency of pilots or flight attendants, or provide a revenue opportunity for airlines or Airbus. | 25 |
| Novelty/Creativity | The concept is new or new to commercial aviation. It affords a capability that is only possible due to the use of the metaverse. A novel solution may leverage the metaverse to improve upon existing ways of doing something or propose something entirely unique. | 20 |
| Ease of Implementation | How easy would it be to bring this concept to life? Consider if the technology is readily available, if it requires a large investment in hardware, regulatory approval, or other substantial hurdle to implementation. | 20 |
Participation Eligibility:
The challenge is open to all adult individuals, private teams, public teams, and collegiate teams. Teams may originate from any country, so long as US Federal Sanctions or other Official Sanctions do not prohibit participation. Submissions must be made in English. All challenge-related communication will be in English. Airbus employees are not eligible.
No specific qualifications or expertise in the field of the metaverse or air travel is required. Prize organizers encourage outside individuals and non-expert teams to compete and propose new solutions.
To be eligible to compete, you must comply with all the terms of the challenge as defined in the Challenge-Specific Agreement.
Registration and Submissions:
Submissions must be made online (only), via upload to the HeroX.com website, on or before 5:00 PM EDT on June 14, 2022. No late submissions will be accepted.
This challenge allows up to five submission per individual/team. You are not required to submit multiple entries. Should you have multiple entries to submit to this challenge, they will be considered separately. Whether or not multiple entries from the same individual or team may be chosen for a prize is up to the discretion of the Challenge Sponsor.
Intellectual Property Rights:
As detailed in the Challenge-Specific Agreement – All intellectual property rights, if any, and all inventions, patents, patent applications, designs, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, software, source code, object code, processes, formulae, ideas, methods, know-how, techniques, devices, creative works, works of authorship, publications, and/or other intellectual property (“Intellectual Property”) developed by Innovator as part of the Submission will remain with Innovator, subject to the following condition:
If Challenge Sponsor notifies Innovator that Submission is eligible for a Prize, Innovator will be considered qualified as a finalist (“Finalist”). Finalist must agree to grant to the Challenge Sponsor a royalty free, non-exclusive license in respect of all such intellectual property rights, if any, for the purposes of commercial exploitation of the idea or concept demonstrated by the Submission. Notwithstanding granting the Challenge Sponsor a perpetual, non-exclusive license for the submission, Finalist retains ownership of the submission.
Awarding of the Prize:
The Individual Submitter or Team Captain is automatically designated as the Recipient of the prize monies. The Individual’s or Captain’s name must also match the Authorized Person on the receiving Bank Account. No changes are permitted to the prize Recipient after the Submission Deadline date. If you wish to change who would receive the prize monies, those changes must be completed prior to the Submission Deadline. View our Knowledge Base article here for how to change Team Captains.
Judging Panel:
The determination of the winners will be made by a group of people as determined by Airbus.
Additional Information
