Ax Summit: Extolling the importance of innovation

Inflight attended the Ax Summit 2022 in London in June to learn more about the future of Aerospace Xelerated programme. Below, Jacqueline Davidson, Programme Director at Aerospace Xelerated and Principal of Global Accelerators & Innovation Programs at Boeing shares key highlights from the event.

Ax Summit — the first-ever Aerospace Xelerated summit — took place in London this June, bringing together industry experts, government leaders and portfolio businesses to celebrate innovation in aerospace.

The one-day event was a huge success and a fantastic way for everyone to hear about Aerospace Xelerated’s wide-reaching success over the past three years.

It was amazing to see our startups given the opportunity to ask tough questions to the team at the top, test out their tech for making a potential sale, and network with important and like-minded people.

Morning of the Founders Summit
Ax Summit took place at The Law Society’s Grade II listed building on Chancery Lane — a venue not only fit for the Queen but surely my future dream wedding!

Yet despite the grandeur, this was a relaxed, interactive and communicative event. The dynamic was so casual that it was such a juxtaposition from the venue.

Since the first cohort in 2019, aerospace has experienced many challenges, so to have almost all our portfolio companies across the three cohorts finally together for the first time — nearly all 29 companies in one room — was awesome.

For many of us, interactions have been limited to video calls over the past few years, so it was amazing to finally get together and compare who you could recognize, and who was much taller ‘in real life’ than expected!

In the morning, there was the opportunity for all the startups across our three cohorts to hear from and chat with a range of Boeing representatives.

We began with a fantastic fireside chat with Nell Breckenridge and Alistair Stocker from Boeing International and Boeing Defence UK respectively. Nell and Al shared with our portfolio companies their unique global perspectives on Boeing’s international presence with a spotlight on key strategic markets moving forward.

Following Nell and Als session, we heard from Francesca Ganderton, from the UK Department of Trade where she shared some helpful insights on exporting methods and important factors to consider when exporting for companies based in the UK.

The final session of the morning concluded with none other than a fireside chat with Jason McClain, Senior Director of Ventures & Innovation Strategy at Boeing, and Scott Walston, VP & Chief Engineer of Boeing Research & Technology. In the fireside chat we discussed perspectives on Boeing’s internal roadmap to navigate challenges in autonomy, future productivity and sustainability. Thankfully we took a coffee and biscuit break beforehand because there was lots to talk with the group about!

It was a refreshing, open chat on technology gaps and pain points as we build an ecosystem to bring future markets into fruition. Our portfolio companies were able to ask some tough questions that they’ve been wanting to ask; refreshing given it is usually our small immediate team in the hot seat on our quarterly 1:1s!

The Afternoon of the Ax Summit
Around 100 people from across the aerospace industry joined the afternoon session, including representatives from Boeing, GKN Aerospace, Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), the UK Ministry of Defence, Rolls-Royce and Tawazun Economic Council.

Sir Martin Donnelly, President of Boeing Europe and Managing Director of Boeing UK and Ireland, started the proceedings as he introduced Aerospace Xelerated, shared the program’s achievements to date and showed his support for aerospace innovation. He explained why the program is important for the UK industry and specifically for Boeing.

£77,000,000 raised by portfolio companies
150 jobs created in the UK & internationally
820+ hours of training delivered
578 applications received from 40+ countries across three cohorts
In the afternoon, we announced that the Tawazun Economic Council is joining the Aerospace Xelerated family in Cohort 4. Nichola Bates, our Managing Partner, and Tawazun Economic Council Executive Director Abdulla Al Awani outlined their joint vision of building a global aerospace ecosystem for lasting innovation in future technology.

Aerospace Xelerated is a big family, and it’s with great joy that we are able to expand and franchise into new exciting regions such as the United Arab Emirates.

Nagendraprasad (Prasad) Chandrasheker, our keynote speaker from Fidelity International, is someone that nearly all participants spoke about for the weeks following the event. His keynote shared the challenge of corporate innovation and the importance of partnering with small businesses.

It was a phenomenal, humorous, and impactful speech from Prasad that really resonated with the whole audience with topics including startups’ perspectives of working with corporations and the importance of government and how they can really be a catalyst for small businesses.

To celebrate innovation in aerospace, we then hosted a panel with one founder from each cohort to share their experience on the Aerospace Xelerated program, their highlights, and success stories. This was an amazing session that went totally off script; as most things do with this bunch. It was an amazing opportunity for Keith Perrin (Authentise), Tim Davies (HiiROC) and Cole Rosentreter (Pegasus) to be silly, inspirational, and bluntly share their insights into their world with key industry figures.

Aerospace Xelerated Awards Ceremony
Finally, the Ax Summit concluded with a series of Awards celebrating our Aerospace Xelerated portfolio company’s outstanding contribution and commitment to the aerospace industry. Throughout Cohort 1, 2, and 3, there have always been startups who stood out as being extremely innovative in their approach, captured a niche and critical market segment, or demonstrated an amazing team culture.

But a huge round of applause to the winners: Plyable, HiiROC, and Pegasus.

Special mention of course to Dana Zou, Program Associate at Aerospace Xelerated. Everything at the Ax Summit went off without a hitch because Dana works wonders. From scheduling meetings to working through everyone’s different preferences, she’s so detail-oriented, but then on the flip side, she’s also so creative! She was the MVP for the AX team and that was very well deserved.

The whole day of Ax Summit was truly fantastic and really emphasised the importance of innovation and why we do what we do. And that glass of wine at the end of the day during the networking drinks reception was definitely the icing on the cake! It was just great to finally meet and talk to some of the people face to face who I’ve been working with virtually for such a long time. Now that we’ve completed our inaugural Ax Summit, it already has me shooting for even higher expectations for the next one, this time, in the UAE; stay tuned!