The first ever Drone World Expo had an extremely successful launch last week at the San Jose Convention Center. The exhibit hall floor featured 75 exhibiting companies and the event attracted 2,120 commercial drone professionals. The exhibitors responded enthusiastically about their experience at the new trade show with many already planning on renewing booth space for the 2016 Show which will take place November 15-16 back at the San Jose Convention Center.
Justin Miller, Co-Founder, AirNest, said, “It was unbelievable how many people came through our booth these past two days. We were pleasantly surprised how many cinematographers were here, and many were very interested in our product. We are based in Pennsylvania so it’s great to be in the heart of Silicon Valley and meet with so many key players.”
Austen Butler, Vice President of Polar Pro, said, “We have had quite a week. Last Friday we were featured on Shark Tank and got a million dollar investment for our pro filters and then we came here to San Jose to participate in Drone World Expo and have had a really great show.”
“We are happy to be a part of Drone World Expo. We have had a huge amount of interest in our product,” said Andre Vargas, Integration and Applications Engineer, Riegl USA. “It is great to see the industry evolving in a positive way for commercial use.”
“The best part about Drone World Expo is that everyone in the industry is represented here, giving us an opportunity to do business with both the attendees and the other exhibiting companies,” said Alex Moss, Communications and Account Manager, PrecisionHawk. “We had a great turn out for our Tech Talk presentation, and were thrilled that Lia Riech our VP of Marketing was able to participate in the Women of Commercial Drones panel, that was a dynamic discussion for the industry.”
Many of the exhibitors showcased their latest drones in the Live Flying Demonstration Area and dozens presented in the Tech Talk Theater which attracted standing room only crowds. Presenters represented Yunteec Electric Aviation, Airnest, Amimon, Precision Integrated, Alta Devises, Bentley Systems, Skyward, PrecisionHawk, DroneDeploy, Perkins Coie, Drone Logger Enterprises, Intel, Cherokee Nation Technologies, Vertical, AirVuz and the Society of Aerial Cinematography.
In addition to the exhibit floor, Drone World Expo offered a world-class education program which kicked off with an opening day keynote presentation which was moderated by Gretchen West, Hogan Lovells. Government and industry leaders including David Famolari, Verizon Ventures; Marke “Hoot” Gibson, FAA; Parimal “PK” Kopardekar, NASA and Dave Vos, Google X shared the challenges with implementation, timelines, industry involvement, and progress and successes.
On Wednesday morning, attendees had a chance to hear from John L. Petersen, Chairman, The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, who presented Drones for Good: Using UAS to Stop the Slaughter of Rhino and Elephants in Africa. Petersen explained, “Over 40,000 elephants are killed each year by poachers and we are working diligently with a local organization in South Africa to put drones in the air to keep poachers away from the animals at night. During our first test in Kruger National Park, the drones helped to steeply decrease the number of rhinos and elephants who were slaughtered for their ivory tusks. I’m look forward to walking the show floor at the expo to see what other technology we can be using.”
As the event came to a close there was a packed room with entrepreneurs seeking advice on acquiring funding. Several of the most prominent drone investors from Silicon Valley presented including Jonathan Downey from Commercial Drone Fund, Gareth Keane from Qualcomm Ventures, Len Ferrington from Summit Partners and Viraj Tipnis from SkyFund. The panel was moderated by Max Motschwiller from Meritech Capital.
“We listened to the industry and worked closely with our exhibitor partners, trade associations and Advisory Board members to create a brand new event exclusively for commercial end users of UAS technology,” said Joel Davis, CEO, JD Events, producers of Drone World Expo. “We were thrilled with the response and look forward to watching the industry evolve and bringing the community back together again next November.”
The 2016 Drone World Expo will be held November 15-16 once again at the San Jose Convention Center.
Source: Press Release