Commercial UAV Expo Europe announces drone conference programme

The inaugural edition of Commercial UAV Expo Europe will take place from 20-22 June 2017 at the SQUARE Brussels Exhibition Centre in Brussels, Belgium.

Day 1 – 20 June

The three-day conference and exhibition kicks off on 20 June with the introduction of the latest products by nearly two dozen best-in-class manufacturers including Aerialtronics, Virtual Surveyor NV and Pythagoras BVBA. See the full schedule here: http://www.expouav.com/europe/product-previews/.

Day 2 – 21 June

Lisa Murray, Director of Commercial UAV Expo, is to open proceedings on Wednesday 21 June. Next, we will turn our attention to keynote speaker Koen de Vos, representative of the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG-MOVE), for his lecture “Building the EU Drone Service Market by 2019”.

This is followed by a Keynote by Kay Wackwitz, the CEO & Founder of Drone Industry Insights (DroneII), whose presentation is entitled “Commercial UAV Market: Trends and Opportunities.”

Next is a plenary session during which a panel of experts will discuss topics such as regulations, successes, challenges and a vision for the future. Amongst others, this panel will include Drone Alliance Europe and representatives of national RPAS associations including APANT (Portugal), BeUAS (Belgium), EUKA (Belgium), UAS (Norway) and UAS Denmark (Denmark).

In the afternoon it is time for training programmes with tracks per vertical market. Experts from the sector will share share best practices, case studies and challenges with the participants. Thematic presentations and plenary sessions will be held on universal themes such as system selection, workflow integration, legal considerations, regulation issues, harmonisation of standards and much more. Global technology innovators representing growth segments for drone use will gain critical insights from fellow users and hear from drone experts about the road ahead for UAV/UAS integration in Europe. First up are the training programmes for the civil engineering & infrastructure and mining & aggregates sectors, followed by the programmes for the utilities & inspection and security, law enforcement, emergency response & SAR sectors.

This second day concludes with a demonstration by the first five finalists of the maiden edition of the European Drone Hero Contest. The competition is chaired by Peter Van Blyenburgh, president of UVS International.

Day 3 – 22 June

The final day of the drone conference starts with the training programmes for the Process & Power; renewable energy and surveying & mapping sectors, followed by a demonstration by the next five finalists of the Drone Hero Contest.

In the afternoon the training programmes for the construction and precision agriculture sectors take centre stage and then it is time to announce the winner of the Drone Hero Europe 2017 competition.

The fair concludes with a plenary discussion on legal considerations and regulation issues for the protection of companies.

The full conference programme, with links to abstracts and speaker bios, is available here: http://www.expouav.com/europe/conference-program/

VIP programme

Qualified companies involved in the purchase or utilisation of UAS technology for business purposes and with assets valued at $5 million or more can register as a UAVIP and attend the event free of charge. Eligible companies include energy companies, transport and infrastructure companies, mining companies, large construction/engineering firms, telecommunications companies and governments.

>> Qualified companies wishing to attend Commercial UAV Expo Europe free of charge as a UAVIP can register here: http://www.expouav.com/uavip/

>> View the full programme for Commercial UAV Expo Europe here: http://www.expouav.com/europe/conference-program/