South by Southwest is one of the biggest music, film and technology conferences in the the world. The best and the brightest minds in the world converge on Austin, Texas in order to exchange ideas and get clued into the latest trends.  But, you don’t need to be at the festival to take part in the conference.  The “FlyingLab SXSW” brought to you by Lufthansa is the regularly scheduled LH 440 Frankfurt to Houston Flight. The Airbus A380 turns into a flying conference hall as the passengers soaring high above the Atlantic will be purview to experts giving insights on a multitude of topics.  The 15 minute sessions range from the future of transportation, to smartcities. The onboard entertainment system will give attendees live video feeds of speakers and copies of the speakers materials via wifi.

FlyingLabs have taken place on the topics of virtual reality as well as fashion & technology.  The idea using the in-the-air time to promote critical thinking in a conference setting is something that Lufthansa thinks might catch on.  In future, Lufthansa hopes to open up the platform and offer FlyingLabs from third parties.  The idea that companies will use this to introduce their employees or customers to particular topics on the way to conferences, trade fairs and other events is one of the concepts being tested in these FlyingLabs.