Portland, Maine, USA – July 30, 2024 – Organizers of Commercial UAV Expo, the world’s leading commercial drone trade show and conference, have announced their highly anticipated Opening Keynote lineup for the 2024 event, featuring leaders from the FAA, Mitsubishi Electric, NUAIR, Ondas Autonomous Systems, uAvionix Corporation and Commercial Drone Alliance. The Keynotes focus on the urgent call for cross-industry collaboration, the future of airspace with the FAA, and the path to accelerate commercial viability and market demand. Opening Keynote discussions take place Wednesday, September 4, 2024, at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Opening Keynote sessions are as follows:

The State of the Drone Industry: Will Better Collaboration Unlock the Full Potential of Drones?

Featuring Lisa Ellman, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Commercial Drone Alliance and Gretchen West, Co-Founder and Membership Director of Commercial Drone Alliance

The commercial drone industry has seen some positive advancements over the past year and has much to celebrate. Commercial Drone Alliance founders and industry veterans Lisa Ellman and Gretchen West will kick off the Commercial UAV Expo 2024 reviewing the successes over the past year and highlighting areas where challenges still exist. They will provide an overview of conference content that will help address these challenges and note where industry professionals can get involved. To unlock the full potential of drones and develop strong market demand, the commercial drone industry needs to take collective action, and Ellman and West will share their insights and provide a call to action for the community to get engaged.

Outlining the Future of the Airspace with the FAA

Featuring Tim Arel, Chief Operating Officer, Air Traffic Organization

As the airspace continues to evolve, technology that allows drones to more easily take to the sky is similarly advancing, creating opportunities and challenges when it comes to uniting drones with traditional aviation ecosystems. The FAA is responsible for ensuring safe, efficient and secure air traffic services for approximately 50,000 crewed aircraft operating every day across the National Airspace System (NAS); this session will discuss how FAA leadership is thinking about this unification. Attendees will listen to a candid conversation discussing how the FAA is approaching the operationalization of the airspace as well as integrating unmanned aircraft systems into the NAS. Attendees will better understand what access to the airspace for drones looks like today, tomorrow and in the future

Accelerating Commercial Viability and Market Demand

Featuring Eric Brock, CEO, Ondas Autonomous Systems; Jon Damush, President and CEO, uAvionix Corporation; Erik Mintz, Director, Mobility Infrastructure, Mitsubishi Electric; and Ken Stewart, CEO and President, NUAIR

The commercial drone industry is on its way to having defined and published rules and regulations, and once in place, will have collectively overcome a major hurdle to scaling drone operations. This panel will answer what additional challenges need to be addressed to guarantee a path to real economic growth and commercial viability, and how market demand needs to grow to witness the true scaling of the commercial drone industry. Experts and industry veterans will offer insights on where firms should focus to create greater market demand, and what to consider to ensure success. Looking at topics through the different lenses of aviation, technology, and financial capital, panelists will explore where market demand truly is today, ask what customers want and how to make a business case for investment, address supply chain issues, competition, standardization and much more. The commercial drone industry must work together to drive solutions to accelerate commercial viability and market demand. The lessons learned from this panel aim to start many discussions during Commercial UAV Expo 2024 and leave participants with ideas to share with industry peers.

The Opening Keynote announcement follows the recent Keynote preview that outlined what to expect from additional discussions including Outlining the Future of Drone Regulations with the FAA, featuring Jodi Baker, Deputy Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety at the FAA, and The Secret to Success for Public & Enterprise Drone Programs: Intentional Implementation for Scalable Adoption, featuring Randy Macchi, Chief Operating Officer of City of Houston, and Josh Fredriksson, Senior Director of Inspections, Pacific Gas & Electric.  View the full Keynote session details online.

The Keynotes kick off the event’s conference program with the theme of “Drones in Action: Current Regulations and Future Realities,” delivering practical, actionable education developed in conjunction with industry leaders. The transformative role of UAS technology will be highlighted across the entire program but will particularly emphasize strategies for building successful drone programs in the fast-growing verticals of Construction, Energy and Utilities and Infrastructure and Transportation, as well as Surveying and Drone Pilot content and a new dedicated Policy track providing drone operators with need-to-know information directly from regulators.

Select sessions are produced with Commercial UAV Expo’s Official Association Partner, Commercial Drone Alliance, an organization that advocates for the commercial use of drones by reducing barriers to enable game-changing technology.

Visit www.expouav.com for complete event information and register today for the best rates. 

About Commercial UAV Expo

Commercial UAV Expo, presented by Commercial UAV News, is an international conference and expo exclusively focused on commercial UAS integration and operation. It will occur September 3-5, 2024, at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada. For more information, visit https://www.expouav.com/  

Commercial UAV Expo is produced by Diversified Communications’ technology portfolio, which also includes Commercial UAV News; Commercial UAV Expo Europe, Geo Week, Geo Week Newsletter, 3D Technology Newsletter, AEC Innovations Newsletter, Geo Business (UK), and Digital Construction Week (UK).

For more information about exhibiting at Commercial UAV Expo, visit the exhibitor information page or contact Kat McDonald, Sales Manager, at [email protected] or +1.207-842-5646 or Dominique, Caron, Sales Representative, at [email protected] or + (207) 842-5404. For information on attending, visit https://www.expouav.com/ or email [email protected].

Questions?
Lora Burns 
Commercial UAV Expo Senior Marketing Manager
[email protected]