InterDrone is just one month away and we can’t wait.

We’ve attended four years in a row now, since InterDrone first launched, and every year the conference has gotten bigger and more impressive.

If you haven’t been before, InterDrone is the largest commercial drone show in North America, with anticipated attendance this year of 3,500 people.

The 2018 conference will be held from September 5—7 at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, NV, and will feature more than 125 sessions, panel discussions, and keynotes conducted by renowned industry experts, as well as over 165 companies showcasing the latest hardware, software, and drone accessories in the exhibit hall.

Know you want to attend InterDrone 2018? Register here, and make sure to use code UAVCOACH for $100 off your ticket.

Now let’s take a look at our 18 reasons to attend InterDrone in 2018.

1. InterDrone Is the Largest Commercial Drone Event in North America

Enough said, right?

With 3,500 attendees, 125+ sessions, panel discussions, and keynotes, and 165+ exhibiting companies, InterDrone is the premier commercial drone event in North America. If you’re only going to attend one drone conference this year, it should probably be InterDrone.

2. Enterprise After Hours

To help people attending the conference for specific verticals connect with each other, InterDrone has added a new After Hours event to the schedule this year. The event will take place on the evening of Wednesday, September 5, and will be broken up into different commercial sectors, allowing attendees to visit different rooms to talk to people working in different verticals.

The After Hours will feature special networking sessions in dedicated rooms for different verticals, including:

• Construction
• Aggregates and Mining
• Inspection (both energy and
  infrastructure inspection)
• Precision Agriculture
• Public Safety
• Surveying and Mapping

3. Networking

The After Hours event is only one place where you’ll be able to do some really valuable networking at InterDrone—we can say from experience that InterDrone is one of the best venues in the industry for meeting new people and catching up with those you already know.

One of the main reasons people attend conferences like InterDrone is to network—to catch up with old friends, make new ones, look for work or find new employees, and to generally mingle and learn more about the drone industry from other people who work in it.

We ourselves have made some of our best and longest-lasting connections at InterDrone, and we can’t wait for more networking opportunities this year.

4. Expansion of Enterprise-Specific Content

In addition to the After Hours event, InterDrone has expanded their enterprise-specific tracks this year with 60-minute panels and classes specific to each vertical covered in the After Hours event:

• Construction
• Aggregates and Mining
• Inspection (both energy and
  infrastructure inspection)
• Precision Agriculture
• Public Safety
• Surveying and Mapping

These panels and classes will be woven throughout the entirety of the program at InterDrone 2018, helping people who are attending for specific enterprise applications further their education and their connections in the specific sector of the drone industry that most interests them.

InterDrone’s audience has become increasingly professional since its inception in 2015. With the addition of the enterprise after hours and specific enterprise tracks, we are ensuring we are delivering the most comprehensive program to the commercial drone industry.

– Katie Flash, InterDrone Content Director

5. DJI Enterprise to Exhibit for First Time with Biggest Booth in InterDrone History

This year DJI Enterprise has signed on as an exhibitor at InterDrone, which is noteworthy because it’s the first time DJI has had a major presence at the conference.

With a 40 x 40-foot booth, DJI Enterprise has reserved the largest exhibit space in the history of InterDrone, and plans to showcase many of its vertical partner solutions along with its own hardware.

In addition to making a big splash in the exhibition hall, DJI will present a keynote on the morning of Thursday, September 6, as well as teach several 60-minute sessions on topics such as its developer technologies, the current landscape of drones in public safety, and what’s new in aerial photography.

The DJI team is excited for InterDrone 2018, where we will showcase our latest technology, which include solutions developed in close collaboration with our partners—many of whom will be exhibiting at our booth.

– Jan Gasparic, Head of Enterprise Partnerships at DJI

6. The Exhibition Hall

Speaking of DJI and their huge booth, the InterDrone exhibition hall is just generally incredible.

This year over 165 companies will be exhibiting, and they’re sure to have their latest, most impressive technology on display.

In the past we’ve been wowed just walking around the exhibition hall, seeing all of the new releases from major players in the drone industry and meeting people at the booths.

The exhibit hall schedule for this year is:

• Wednesday, September 5, from 10:30 am – 5:30 pm
• Thursday, September 6, from 11:00 am – 6:45 pm
• Friday, September 7, from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

7. A Workshop on Drone Videography

This year InterDrone is offering a 4.5 hour workshop on drone videography. The workshop will take place the day before InterDrone begins, on Tuesday, September 4, and will be taught by a veteran UAS operator/pilot Douglas Spotted Eagle.

The workshop will cover how to approach creating the best drone footage (or sourcing it), how to know where to begin the color correction process, and how to become aware of codec challenges for color correction, stabilization, and matching. It will also detail what you need for complete aerial storytelling, adding to ground footage and unique elements to best to convey your story and clearly communicate your message.

Topics to be covered in the workshop include:

• Creating a flight plan
• Setting up the drone/UAV camera
• Filters (Polarizers, Neutral Density, Gradients)
• Avoiding pitfalls and weather
• Filters, codecs, and stabilization
• Color-correction baselines

8. A Workshop on How to Find Your Fortune in the Drone Industry

Another half-day workshop being offered the day before the conference begins is on how to build a successful business in the drone industry.

The workshop will cover items like how to decide what kind of business to start, sales and marketing, and how to simplify the process of starting and running a successful drone business or company.

Topics to be covered in the workshop include:

• Drone Opportunities Abound: Selecting what’s right for you
• Trail Blazers: Learn from those that have gone before you
• How to build a competitive advantage
• Marketing on a shoestring
• The hunt for start-up capital

9. A Full-Day Public Safety Workshop

In addition to the two half-day workshops, to underscore their commitment to public safety and drones this year InterDrone has added a full-day Public Safety workshop, also to be held on Tuesday, September 5.

The full-day workshop devoted to Public Safety will focus on the steps needed to create a successful drone program within a first responder organization, including police, fire and search and rescue. Michael Uleski, a full-time public safety officer for the Daytona Beach Shores Dept. of Public Safety where he is certified as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, and EMT, will teach the workshop.

If you work for a police or fire department and you’ve been looking for guidance in creating a drone program, this workshop will help you get your operation up and running.

10. New Public Safety Track

In addition to the full-day workshop, InterDrone has added a new Public Safety track to the program this year to provide more in-depth support for attendees from public agencies.

The new track will offer 60-minute classes and panels throughout the conference, and cover subjects such as mutual aid deployments, the current landscape and current technology, and successfully deploying UAS during a public safety incident will be covered.

It looks like 2018 will mark the year of the drone for public safety agencies. In ever-increasing numbers, agencies are discovering the incredible resource that an unmanned aerial system can bring to their day-to-day operations.

– Michael Uleski, Public Safety Presenter at InterDrone 2018

11. Meet the UAV Coach Team

This year the UAV Coach team will be represented by Student Support Manager Mike McGuirt and our new Marketing Manager Isabella Gustave. This will be Isabella’s first time attending InterDrone, and she is thrilled to experience InterDrone for the first time.

(Unfortunately our CEO Alan Perlman and Chief Strategy Officer Lana Axelrod will not be able to attend this year.)

If you plan to go to InterDrone, we’d love to meet you. Please make sure to comment on this thread in our community forum to let us know, or send us an email at support[at]uavcoach[dot]com.

We can’t wait to see you there!

12. Newest Data on the Drone Industry from SkyLogic

Just in time for InterDrone 2018, Skylogic will be releasing a report from the data collected in their 2018 survey.

Skylogic’s 2017 report provided revealing information on where drone pilots are making money, and this year’s report promises to have useful insights on who’s buying drones and who’s using drone software.

Colin Snow, CEO of SkyLogic, will be speaking again at InterDrone this year, and attendees will have the chance to get information from him based on the data collected in his survey.

There is a lack of objective information on the drone industry. We find an absence of credible market-based research and little understanding of the difference between large industry forecasts and actual buyer adoption rates. This study will clarify much of that.

– Colin Snow, CEO of SkyLogic

13. Eight Industry Verticals Covered

This year InterDrone will include eight unique tracks for different industry verticals, allowing attendees to really hone in on the topics that most interest them. If you want to learn more about a specific commercial drone application, this year’s lineup promises to have in-depth content that will address your needs.

The eight industry verticals that will be covered at InterDrone 2018 are:

• Precision Agriculture
• Construction, Aggregates, and Mining
• Inspection
• Business
• Development and Hardware
• Cinema and Photo
• Public Safety
• Surveying and Mapping

14. Fourth Annual Women in Drones Luncheon

InterDrone 2018 will feature the fourth annual Women in Drones Luncheon, an event that strives to highlight the accomplishments of women in the commercial drone space, and which presents key networking opportunities for women working in the drone industry.

During the luncheon, Women and Drones will announce the 2018 Women to Watch in UAS list of honorees. These are women who have made exceptional contributions to the UAS industry and were selected from hundreds of nominations.

Suzanne Lemieux, UAS Lead and Manager, API (American Petroleum Institute), will host the 2018 luncheon. Other notable participants include Lia Reich, VP Marketing-Communications at PrecisionHawk, Sharon Rossmark, CEO and Founder of Women and Drones, and Mariah Scott, President of Skyward, A Verizon Company.

15. UAV Coach Is an InterDrone Media Partner

We’re honored to be an ongoing media partner for InterDrone, and it’s important to note that we don’t enter into partnerships like this lightly.

If we decide to partner with an organization it means that we believe in their mission and think what they’re doing is of high quality and worth sharing with our community.

16. InterDrone Has 300+ Media Partners for 2018

We’re not the only ones who decided to be a media partner for InterDrone—this year more than 300 media and association partners across a variety of industry verticals have announced support for InterDrone.

So if it’s true that you can be judged by those with whom you associate, InterDrone is looking pretty darn good these days.

“Each partner is marketing InterDrone to their respective audiences, using all available forms of digital, print and social media, giving the show incredible breadth of promotion across dozens of industries in more than 150 nations.”

Carl Berndtson, Confex Partners Managing Director

17. Find Work

Drone jobs abound at InterDrone. Every year we meet InterDrone attendees who have connected with potential employers, and learned about new ideas and applications they can use to expand their drone businesses.

And the opportunities aren’t just limited to drone pilots. InterDrone is a great place to hunt for a job at a drone company in various positions, from marketing and sales, to HR, and beyond.

Pro tip: Make sure to bring business cards, and give them to everyone you meet whom you think could be a potential lead for finding work. A business card makes it easy for people to follow up with you, and it also helps you project an air of professionalism when making new connections.

18. Las Vegas

While the cliche about what happens there stays there may be a little worn out, the truth is that Las Vegas is a place where you can see an incredible variety of shows, eat at world class restaurants, and walk around one of the most architecturally impressive cities in the world—all while rubbing elbows with some of the most important people in the drone industry.

For us, this definitely is an added draw for the conference.

Planning to attend InterDrone next month? Get a $100 discount by using code UAVCOACH when you purchase your tickets.

If you know you’re going to attend, please make sure to let us know by chiming in on this thread in the UAV Coach community forum.