2023 Cabin Crew Conference

Download the 2023 Cabin Crew Conference presentations HERE.

Cabin Crew Conference Moderators: Ian Mitchell & Heidi Romano, Air Canada

Day 1 – Tuesday 18th April 2023

Session 1 – Opening Remarks & Airline Flight Training Leaders Panel (all streams)
1) Daniel Serfaty, CEO, Aptima, Inc.
Adaptive Individualized Training in Aviation
2) Airline Flight Training Leaders Panel
Moderated by Capt. Paul Preidecker

  • Kirk Limacher, Vice President Flight Operations, United Airlines
  • Jeffrey Winter, Vice President Flight Operations, JetBlue
  • Brad Lambert, Vice President Flight Operations, Frontier Airlines
  • Paul Kinstedt, Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Republic Airways
  • Chris Broom, Vice President Commercial Training Solutions, Boeing Global Services
  • Captain Stéphan Labrucherie, Head of Flight Training Worldwide, Airbus

Session 2 – Staying the Course: Regulatory Roundup (all streams)
1) Lee Abbott, Manager Training and Simulation Group (AFS-280) & Ben Lafargue, AQP Section Manager, Training and Simulation Group (AFS-280), Federal Aviation Administration
FAA Update – The Agency’s Strategic Approach to Major Initiatives and Training-Centric Matters such as Standardized Curriculum and Powered Lift.
2) Dr. Kathy Abbott, Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor, Flight Deck Human Factors, Federal Aviation Administration
FAA AC 120-23, Flight Path Management Advisory Circular: Current and Future Directions
3) Peter Cerdá, Regional Vice President for the Americas, IATA
Global and Regional Outlook for Airline Operations

Session 3 – Opening of the Cabin Stream and a View of the Airline Training World 2023
1) Dr. Suzanne Kearns, Founder & Director, Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics & Associate Professor, University of Wateroo
Achieving a Socially Sustainable Future in Aviation – Promoting Inclusion and Optimizing Human Performance
2) Anca Gosling, Director of Aviation Training Content & Development, Aeroclass
Training the Next Generation: Innovative Way to Learn Aviation English via 3D Images
3) Richard Gomez, VP, Aviation Training & Products Worldwide, MedAire
Empowering Crew to Manage In-Flight Emergencies, Beyond CPR and AED Training

Session 4 – Training Innovation and Insights
1) Nataša Bešter, Compliance and Safety Manager, Civil Aviation Agency, Slovenia
The Benefits of the Ramp Inspections Awareness Programme
2) Cengiz Turkoglu, Senior Lecturer & Quality Manager, Cranfield University
Transforming Recurrent Training Sessions into Interactive Engagements to Gather Safety Intelligence
3) Davy Snowdon MBE, CEO & Founder, Pristine Condition International
How to Eliminate Manual Handling Injuries

Day 2 – Wednesday 19th April 2023

Session 5 – CRM and Human Factors
1) Helen Heenan, Safety Improvement Specialist in Human Performance, UK CAA
“It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” (And Other Platitudes)
2) Captain Reyné O’Shaughnessy, Founder, Piloting 2 Wellbeing
Training for the Next Generation – Resiliency
3) Donna Hubbard, Executive Director, Woman At The Well Transition Center
Human Trafficking

Session 6 – Competency-Based Training and Assessment & AQP
1) Ivan Noël, President/Founder, Inflight Innovations Inc./Inflight Institute
Competency-Based Training and Assessments in the Cabin
2) Vin Parker, Director, Learning and Development, Flight Operations Training, Republic Airways
AQP, CBTA, and Resilience Engineering – Focus on What Matters
3) Tanya Phipps, Aviation Safety Inspector, Federal Aviation Administration & Cheryl Prentice, Strategic Learning Partner – Air Ops, Southwest Airlines
What is AQP All About?

Session 7 – Evolving Concepts in Cabin Crew Training
1) Captain Mark Farquhar, Chief Training Captain, easyJet
Innovating Training Through the Pandemic
2) Michaela Klasner, Your Path Counseling and Mediation
Proficiency, Competency and the Training Environment: Looking Inward
3) Stephen Gatlin, Cabin Crew Training Program Director, CPaT Global
Maximize Your Cabin Crew Training Goals with Advanced Distance Learning Solutions

Session 8 – Workshops

• Introducing Olympic Weightlifting Techniques to Aviation – Davy Snowdon MBE, Pristine Condition International
Get physical with Davy Snowdon MBE, as he teaches delegates how to eliminate stress on the body when carrying out day-to-day manual handling activities by applying scientifically proven Olympic weightlifting techniques.

• Diversity and Inclusion: Where Do We Really Stand? – Michaela Klasner, Your Path Counseling & Mediation
Explore diversity and inclusion today … what it means, how this has been incorporated into business over time, but most importantly where do we stand? Are we in a better place? Successes, failures, and what is behind both. Are we as inclusive when it comes to diversity of though, and what does this mean?

• The Instructional Orchestra: Tuning Up Your Instructors for Perfect Harmony – Ivan Noël, Inflight Innovations Inc./Inflight Institute
An essential element of in-person training is ensuring everyone sings from the same song sheet. Are your instructors effective and efficient? How do you know? In this Instructor Calibration workshop, participants will explore the importance of calibration and various strategies for achieving instructor calibration, such as developing peer review strategies and providing feedback and support. We will also explore how technology can play a part in achieving peak performance.

• The Evolution of Cabin Crew Training – Jose Alfonso, Empower Communications Group
In order to prepare our cabin crew for the challenges that they are facing we need to make sure that our training reflects real life challenges. Let me give you an example. In the last two years we have asked cabin crew trainers regarding how flight attendants are trained when using restraints (Flex cuffs, etc.) the response is pretty much the same across the board. The training is done in a static (Vanilla) environment. As a trainer who has been developing and conducting reality based training for 20 years I can say without a doubt that the only thing that is accomplished in the training of restraints in a static environment is training scars. Simply put, we need to duplicate both the physical and physiological environment that is experienced in a real-world situation when we are trying to restrain someone. In this workshop we will identify and discuss what is reality-based training, how it benefits cabin crew, building blocks for a successful reality-based training program, and creating a safe training environment.

• What is Your Plan? – Rick Reitz, SAFEsky Inc.
We will discuss ways to help inflight crewmembers, and other passengers, in the event of a disturbance on board. Be prepared. Have a plan!

Day 3 – Thursday 20th April 2023

Session 9 – Unruly Passengers Training Insights
1) Jose Alfonso, Owner, Empower Communications Group
L.O.U.D.E.R. – Recognizing the Signs
2) Frederick Reitz, Managing Director, SAFEsky Inc.
Unruly Passengers Continue to Disrupt Air Travel
3) Lois Simpson, Training Development Consultant, Air New Zealand
Managing Sexual Assaults Onboard Aircraft

Session 10 – AI, the Cloud and VR/XR in the Training Matrix (all streams)
1) Dr. Julian Abich IV, Senior Human Factors Engineer, Quantum Improvements Consulting
Improving the Probability of XR Adoption for Training
2) Dr. Robert ‘Bob’ Thomas, Assistant Professor & Chief Ground Instructor, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Developing and Testing of a Virtual Reality Aviation Illusion Trainer
3) Sebastian Lozé, Unreal Engine Business Director, Simulations, Epic Games
Deploying Training and AI-based Scenarios on the Cloud