How not to cheer up troubled delegates at an introspective aviation industry conference:
Speaker 1: (With over-the-top enthusiasm) "Hi there everyone! OK, let's look at the forecast. What about the future? Well, first off, we hope there is one."
Speaker 2: "Unfortunately we don't have any data about the projected environmental performance, so here's a picture of some children dancing in a field instead."
Speaker 3: (Bombarded by interminable awkward questions) "Don't you folks like coffee?"
Speaker 4: (Depressed airline executive describing the business) "We are involved in a game that has no solution."
Speaker 5: (The same as above) "I think French railway engineer Jules Dupuit (1804-1866) should be the patron saint of airlines. Why? Because when he was describing the 'segmentation' of France's 19th century railways he could just as easily have been describing today's airlines. 'Having refused the poor what is necessary, they give the rich what is superfluous'."
Source: Flight International