The commercial UAV Expo Americas 2019, held October 28-30 at the Westgate Hotel in Las Vegas showed the subject of drones and their practical applications in the commercial infrastructure world has a growing audience. Show producers announced they attracted more than 3,100 professionals in the commercial drone industry indicating a 32 percent growth in attendance over last year’s event. “The year-over-year growth was tremendous,” said Lisa Murray, Group Director at Diversified Communications, producers of the event. “We had 110 new exhibitors and a total of 260 booths.”
The event kicked off Monday October 28 with extensive pre-conference programming including live outdoor flying demonstrations in Henderson, NV put on in cooperation with Sundance Media Group and participating vendors AeroVironment, Autel Robotics, DroneNerds, FLIR, Geometrics, Leica Geosystems, LIDARUSA and Micasense. According to Christopher Wacinski of FevaTech, who attended the demos, “Hands-on experience and being able to go physically see the operations in real time was fantastic. It’s critical, because you can really visualize how you can take and apply this technology and demonstration into your real-world operations.”
Attendees heard Tuesday morning from keynoters James Bridenstine, the NASA Administrator, and Bala Ganesh, Vice President of the Advanced Technology Group at UPS. Bridenstine discussed how unmanned systems help achieve NASA’s missions to the moon and Mars and the industrialization of space. He highlighted how and why the administration he leads is not only about space goals, but also about aviation, both manned and unmanned. “UAVs and urban air mobility (UAM) are the future, but before we reach that future, we need to work hard in perfecting air traffic management systems and solve issues of infrastructure and certification,” Bridenstine told the crowd.
The keynote presentations were followed by a panel discussion of CEOs in the commercial drone space titled “UAS Insights and Strategies for Success in the Current Marketplace.” The panel was moderated by Gretchen West, President & CEO of Schiebel Aircraft, Inc., and featured Mike Winn (CEO, DroneDeploy), Tom Walker (CEO, DroneUp), Brandon Torres Declet (CEO, Measure), and Adam Bry (CEO, Skydio). Each business leader discussed their path to success in the drone industry as well as their vision for the future of commercial UAS technology.
“The full power of the drone industry was on display at our 5th edition of Commercial UAV Expo,” said Murray. “By convening the most influential companies and thought leaders to share their expertise and solutions, we gave everyone involved in the commercial drone market the opportunity to learn from the best.”
November 12, 2019
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