Last month at FTE Global in Long Beach, California, a standing-room-only audience joined a session led by Synect, highlighting how airports are seeking to replace traditional FIDS and how outdated legacy digital signage can benefit from a content-first strategy.
Moderated by Royce Holden, cybersecurity lead and chief information security officer at Mead & Hunt, the panel featured an impressive line-up of industry leaders: Yahav Ran, CEO of Synect, Mike Youngs, VP of Information Technology at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Faith Varwig, principal at Faith Group, Rob Bischoff, global digital experience design leader at Gensler, and Austin Gould, president of Gould Strategic Solutions.
The session explored how prioritising content strategy can optimise passenger experience and behaviour, guide IT strategy, streamline operations and drive revenue. Attendees left with actionable insights that could transform how airports approach communication.
Alison Weber, Synect marketing director
Content-first strategy
For Yahav Ran, content strategy is not about screens; it’s about influencing passenger behaviour. He opened the session by defining content strategy as “the ability to affect the behaviour of the viewers – finding a way to direct them into something that enables a positive outcome for both the viewer and the airport.”
Ran explained how Synect shapes behaviour by tailoring information to travellers’ needs and delivering it across the passenger journey: “If we communicate at the right time, at the right moment, in the right context — because context is really key here — we can drive positive outcomes.”
He broke the process into clear steps: analysing passenger needs, assessing stakeholder requirements, analysing the physical environment, planning communication and evaluating gaps. These steps, he argued, form the foundation of any effective strategy: “Content strategy is a framework that brings all the stakeholders together to invest where it’s right and get the most out of their communication with passengers.”
System and infrastructure
Mike Youngs connected content strategy with IT operations, emphasising the importance of unified systems.
Speaking to CIOs and other IT stakeholders, he said: “We don’t want a different display technology for smart restrooms and for the security checkpoint signs and for FIDS. It’s more cost-effective to have a coherent enterprise content strategy so that you’re not putting as many displays out there. You’re reducing costs, not supporting multiple systems. It just makes sense from an IT strategy perspective.”
At DFW, Youngs and his team modernised the airport’s FIDS to improve usability without overhauling infrastructure. He described starting with the problem: with hundreds of flights at any given time, passengers struggled to find their flight quickly. Leveraging existing hardware and applying app-inspired design principles, DFW and Synect revamped their FIDS to create an easily scannable, visually appealing interface. Passengers were able to find flights more efficiently, reducing frustration.
A participant at FTE Global uses Synect signage
The risks of delay
Faith Varwig addressed the consequences of neglecting content strategy early in project planning, emphasising how the industry frequently invests tens of millions of dollars in digital displays before determining content needs. She noted: “If you have a true digital content strategy, you can right-size your investment. The cost of not right-sizing the investment is just bad design and bad signs.”
Varwig warned that this approach leads to mismatched display sizes, inconsistent designs and significant wasted investment: “The most expensive part of the job is the digital displays, by far. From the cost and installation, you can make a lot of big mistakes and then, as you go back through, [you are] stuck with the environment that you’ve created because you didn’t think about the programme all the way up front.”
A TSA checkpoint at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania benefits from Synect technology and knowhow
Better content means better ROI
Rob Bischoff shared how passenger experience today is omnichannel, with the best experiences built from understanding different passenger types and their needs. He explained how a travelling family has different needs to frequent flyers, emphasising the importance of understanding different traveller types and the information they need across the passenger journey, delivering it at “different times, based on the functional needs, the promotional needs and the experiential needs.”
By aligning content strategy with these varying needs, airports can improve engagement while controlling costs. Bischoff emphasised the need to right-size technology spending based on content strategy, explaining how testing the content can lead to smart recommendations on hardware investment: “We can actually take the same money, spend it smarter up front and reduce our technology spend over time, which is the biggest part of the investment that we’re making.”
Youngs echoed this: “It’s more cost-effective to have a coherent enterprise content strategy so that you’re not putting as many displays out there. You’re reducing costs.”
At FTE Global, Synect CEO Yahav Ran told the audience how to develop a content-first strategy for airport communications
Adapting to the airport
Speaker Austin Gould focused on communication and responsiveness in high-pressure environments like TSA checkpoints: “We talk about making it easy on the passengers, but I firmly believe that effective communication makes for a much more effective security system. Confusion at the checkpoint – it’s not good.”
He described how TSA and Synect’s partnership has transformed checkpoint operations. Dynamic digital displays now deliver real-time updates about queues, divestiture requirements and even emergency alerts: “If you need another pre-check lane, instead of moving stanchions around, you can just turn on another sign. You can change the content.” He added that digital is an opportunity to communicate in multiple languages.
Dynamic content allows airports to adapt quickly to unexpected events, enhancing efficiency and passenger satisfaction. Gould said: “Airports want people through the checkpoints quickly and efficiently because then they’re happier when they’re getting on board the planes, and they’re happier as they spend money in the terminal. Effective content management [and] effective communications is key to it.”
Royce Holden noted the importance of multimodal methods of content delivery, such as mobile phones and even audio, stating how multiple modes could relieve bottlenecks in high traffic areas.
FTE Global saw industry leaders discuss with some enthusiasm the updating of legacy FIDS
Building to scale
The panellists emphasised scalability. As Youngs explained: “You can build around a certain use case or particular problem that you’re trying to solve.”
At DFW, focusing on FIDS allowed the team to modernise a critical communication tool while maintaining budget discipline: “We wanted to reuse as much infrastructure as we could. We went through several iterations to get here, bringing in customers to get their feedback till we got to the ideal product. [The new FIDS] really is a centrepiece for our airport, but also provides that just-in-time information that the passenger needs.”
From insight to action
The session demonstrated that content-first strategy isn’t just a theory, it’s a practical framework that delivers measurable results and significant benefits to passengers, airports and other stakeholders. By prioritising content strategy, airports can improve passenger experiences, streamline operations and ensure their investments drive meaningful outcomes.
For airports contemplating the next step, Synect offers a range of resources, including case studies and strategy sessions to help teams design and implement content-first solutions.
Quotes have been edited for brevity.
A FIDS at DFW shows the benefits of considering content at the planning stage All images Synect unless stated
