Commercial drone event hosted 3,321 UAS professionals; record-breaking exhibit hall expansion
Portland, Maine – USA, September 12, 2024 – Commercial drone professionals gathered last week for the tenth edition of Commercial UAV Expo, held September 3-5, 2024, at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. The event hosted 225 exhibiting companies and organizations from 22 countries and 3,321 verified professionals from all 50 U.S. states and 66 countries out of 3,710 total registrants, continuing its firm establishment as the leading international trade show and conference dedicated to the integration and operation of commercial UAS.
“The commercial drone industry is advancing rapidly past its nascent stage, and the success of this year’s tenth edition of Commercial UAV Expo is a testament to its vital role in driving that growth,” said Lee Corkhill, Group Event Director at Diversified Communications, organizer of Commercial UAV Expo. “For a decade, Commercial UAV Expo has proven to be the must-attend event for anyone who needs to keep up with commercial UAS technology, trends, workforce development, and networking with industry professionals.”
The event kicked off Tuesday, September 3, with extensive pre-conference programming, workshops, and live Outdoor Flying Demonstrations, hosted in cooperation with Sundance Media Group, and sponsored by Frontier Precision Unmanned. Additional participating vendors included Aerialoop, GeoCue, Inspired Flight, Multicopter Warehouse, Wingtra, and Xer Technologies, showcasing live-action demonstrations that provided attendees the opportunity to compare systems in real-world flight scenarios narrated by drone experts in the field. Tuesday’s content programming concluded with concurrent Exhibitor Showcase Presentations highlighted use cases from 24 different company representatives utilizing drones for inspection, law enforcement, drone delivery, and more.
The expanded exhibit hall floor – the largest in the event’s history – opened Tuesday evening, buzzing with commercial drone professionals exploring solutions from among the 225 exhibitors showcasing new technology, hardware, and software to help solve the unique challenges facing the UAS industry.
The opening keynotes on Wednesday, September 4, celebrated the tenth edition of Commercial UAV Expo, and began with a discussion presented by the Commercial Drone Alliance titled The State of the Drone Industry: Will Better Collaboration Unlock the Full Potential of Drones? The opening keynote segment was followed by Outlining the Future of the Airspace with the FAA, a discussion focused on the need to safely integrate drones into the national airspace which called for a shared communications system.
The third segment of the keynote, Accelerating Commercial Viability and Market Demand, focused on commercial opportunities and business strategies in the drone space with speakers from Ondas Autonomous Systems, uAvionix Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric, and NUAIR. Panelists gave their assessment of the current drone market and offered advice to industry professionals on how to move their business forward and achieve success and stability.
The keynotes on Thursday, September 5, explored the most popular and pressing topics in UAV global regulations and ROI. Outlining the Future of Drone Regulationsfeaturedspeakers from the Commercial Drone Alliance and the FAA, followed by The Secret to Success for Public & Enterprise Drone Programs: Intentional Implementation for Scalable Adoptionwithrepresentatives from Houston Public Works and Pacific Gas & Electric offering insights on how to implement and derive real value from drone programs in public agencies and enterprises.
The keynote session concluded with the presentation of the 2024 Eric Talley Memorial Award to Lieutenant Abrem Ayana of the Brookhaven, GA Police Department. Presented by AIRT/DRONERESPONDERS, the award recognizes excellence in public safety UAS management and operations. Visit commercialuavnews.com for in-depth keynote coverage.
The Conference Program featured over 150 industry leaders focused on the event theme Drones in Action: Current Realities and Future Frontiers, delivering practical, actionable education. The transformative role of UAS technology was highlighted across the entire program and emphasized strategies for building successful drone programs in the fast-growing verticals of Construction, Energy and Utilities, and Infrastructure and Transportation. In addition, a dedicated Policy track provided drone operators with need-to-know information directly from regulators on the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, including updates on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for Part 108 and more.
New to Commercial UAV Expo this year was a Drone Pilot Hub, focused on providing dedicated content “from pilots – for pilots” and providing actionable advice and career development opportunities. Leading off the content was a standing room only panel featuring seasoned drone pilots, service providers, and members of the FAA in an advice-packed session.
Additional conference content included the DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety Summit, which featured two full days of programming for drone operators and program managers across law enforcement, fire, search & rescue, and other emergency services, and the FLYING HY Hydrogen Aviation Conference hosted by the HYSKY Society
Special event features included numerous networking events, a University Roundtable and Agriculture Roundtable, the Pitch the Press competition, and a Level-up Lounge for business development co-hosted with Global Air U.
Commercial UAV Expo was also supported by 311 publications, portals, associations, user groups, analysts, cooperating events, and government agencies, covering six continents.
The next edition of Commercial UAV Expo takes place September 2-4, 2025 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, NV. Stay up to date by inquiring about attending or exhibiting, and follow Commercial UAV News for post-event coverage.
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 2-4, 2025, at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, NV. 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, Account Executive, 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]
