Expo on Drones Gets Off Ground

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When the Tesla Foundation Group and its partners decided to host a half-day conference last year on the latest developments in drone technology, they expected maybe a couple of hundred people to show up. But more than 4,500 poured into the old Sports Arena near the USC campus in South Los Angeles, overwhelming the organizers.

This year, with drones a hot topic, Tesla – a three-year-old nonprofit in the city of Los Angeles focused on robotics and not associated with the electric car company – decided to book a December weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Organizers are expecting more than 20,000 attendees, which would make it one of the big-time shows held at the center. As of last week, 4,000 had already purchased tickets for the two-day expo and accompanying business conference.

“This field is exploding,” said Keith Kaplan, chief executive of Tesla and interim chief executive of the Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle Systems Association.

The expo will feature more than 150 booths showcasing the latest in drone technology; tickets cost $25. The business conference, which costs $300 for attendees, will include the latest developments in drone regulation, especially a recent federal proposal to require even casual users to register their drones with the Federal Aviation Administration.

“This promises to be the largest pro-sumer expo of drone technology to date,” Kaplan said. “It’s going to be like a world science fair of aerorobotics and aviation.”

Of course, the drone expo has a long way to go to before coming close to the granddaddy of expos at the Convention Center, the Los Angeles Auto Show, which typically draws around 1 million visitors over 10 days. But if the show continues to grow, it eventually could rival the E3 entertainment software expo, which drew 52,000 over three days in June.

– Howard Fine

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Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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