Blitzcode 2024 Showcases Solutions for Travel Industry Challenges

Sabre Bengaluru GCC is thrilled to announce the successful conclusion of its annual innovation event - Blitzcode. The sixth edition of Blitzcode exemplified the spirit of innovation and collaboration at Sabre, reinforcing the company's dedication to solving real-life challenges through state-of-the-art technology and developing new products and solutions for the travel and hospitality industries.

This year, participants competed in two distinct categories:

1. Eureka Gallivant: Teams were challenged to devise solutions that significantly impact customers, enhance existing products, and introduce new functionalities to drive growth and revenue.
2. Strong Core: The focus of this category was on making products more stable and secure, improving overall quality, and increasing customer satisfaction.

Participants leveraged the latest Gen AI technologies, and Cloud platforms such as Google Cloud, to develop innovative solutions in response to complex industry challenges. Over 35 teams, comprising of 200+ employees, coded and prototyped for over 1000 hours. The event showcased remarkable creativity and technical prowess, which will help Sabre in its mission to build towards tomorrow and reimagine the future of travel.

The event concluded with an awards ceremony, where the winners were rewarded with cheques and certificates by Kurt Ekert, Sabre’s President & CEO, during an employee all-hands. Team Optimization Jedis came in first place with their innovative idea for an in-house AI explanation tool, GenRO Innovators secured second position, and team SkyGuardians took the third spot. Additionally, 15 teams will receive the ‘Making a Difference’ prize for successfully deploying their solutions within six months, underscoring the event's tangible impact on Sabre's commitment to fostering innovation.

Reflecting on the success of the hackathon, Sriram Gopalswamy, Vice President, Site Reliability Engineering & MD, Sabre Bengaluru, said: “Beyond the competition aspect, over the past several years, Blitzcode has been an exceptional catalyst for upskilling and fostering innovation by motivating our team members to solve business challenges for our customers. We take a lot of pride in the solutions that have emerged from Blitzcode, which will not only propel growth for our customers, but will have an undeniable impact on the travel ecosystem as a whole.”

Garry Wiseman, EVP and Chief Product Officer at Sabre, added: “I was thrilled to see the innovation and collaboration that was on display this year during Blitzcode - an event that embodies Sabre's unwavering commitment to innovation, collaboration and fostering a culture of problem-solving for our customers. While many organizations look at coding events such as this to develop blue-sky ideas, Blitzcode is a unique initiative that focuses on creating real-life solutions to use in everyday operations. The benefits can be seen as direct improvements in our offerings, and accelerated deployments for our customers. The prospect of these solutions elevating our customers' experiences and contributing to the future of travel fills me with great pride and enthusiasm.”

Blitzcode 2024 has once again proven the power of collaboration and innovation at Sabre Bengaluru GCC. The event enabled teams to tackle important industry challenges, resulting in production-ready solutions that will undergo rigorous testing over the next few months, before being rolled out to Sabre’s customers and partners.