ORIGINS
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Throughout its evolution, the Airline Passenger Experience Association has stayed in step with the industry by learning from its past while keeping an eye on its future. BY CAROLINE KU
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ince the very first industrywide gathering of professionals whose job it was to put entertainment on aircraft, the goal has been to bring together airlines and vendors from around the world to discuss collective challenges. The idea came up over lunch at Scandia, in West Hollywood, in 1978. Claus Jensen of Thai Airways International was telling Cindy Tarver and Bill Stewart of Billboard Music In The Air about the need for a forum to discuss emerging in-flight entertainment (IFE) software and hardware solutions, and perhaps form an association, too.
“There was no way for the people in in-flight entertainment to get together. There was no forum for it. And so we decided: Wouldn’t it be smarter if we … had an annual get-together, and … exchanged ideas, for the improvement of our industry,” Jensen said in a 1983 issue of the Airline Entertainment Association (AEA) newsletter. Could the association then commission committees to tackle technical issues and publish a newsletter to keep members up to date on those topics? Tarver started thinking. Billboard had just sponsored and produced a series of music-related meetings. Perhaps her
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