DRONERESPONDERS Global Public Safety UAS Summit and Major Cities Meeting announced

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the world’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of unmanned systems and robotics, announced on Nov. 12 the first co-located program for AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2020, the world’s largest unmanned systems event.

AUVSI and the Airborne International Response Team (AIRT), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is home to the DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety Alliance, are partnering to produce the DRONERESPONDERS Global Public Safety UAS Summit and Major Cities Meeting. The summit and meeting will be co-located with XPONENTIAL 2020 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, set to start on May 4.

Public safety and emergency services agencies around the globe are continuing to embrace unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) – also called “drones” – to help save lives and protect property. As the adoption of these amazing new systems increases, so does the need for standardized training and education among first responders.

“Increasingly, drones are proving to be essential tools for a wide range of lifesaving missions around the world,” said Brian Wynne, president and CEO of AUVSI. “The DRONERESPONDERS Global Public Safety UAS Summit and Major Cities Meeting at XPONENTIAL 2020 will provide an educational forum to further unite this vital community to provide training, use studies, and best practices for implementing drones to support and protect public safety professionals.”

The DRONERESPONDERS Global Summit will kick-off on May 4 with the Major Cities Meeting – a special invitation-only conclave for UAS program managers and remote pilots representing public safety agencies from the world’s largest metropolitan areas. On May 5, the summit will officially open to all registrants with two full days of programming surrounding the use of drones by law enforcement, fire services, search-and-rescue, emergency management and humanitarian organizations from all corners of the globe.

“XPONENTIAL is the annual hallmark event that brings together professionals from across all sectors of the unmanned systems industry,” said Christopher Todd, executive director of AIRT. “We are excited to partner with AUVSI to offer all DRONERESPONDERS the opportunity to come together to share information and evaluate amazing new technology that can help save lives.”

Todd said the DRONERESPONDERS Global Summit will contain content that has evolved to keep pace with new public safety use cases. “The trick is to assemble a program that has broad appeal to all sectors of public safety while also providing valuable, actionable information for each attendee to take back home and incorporate into their UAS program,” he added.

“The DRONERESPONDERS Global Summit will highlight all new use cases and key learnings from public safety drone operators in the field,” said Charles Werner, the retired fire chief of Charlottesville, Virginia, and the director of the DRONERESPONDERS program. “Attendees will forge new relationships while receiving cutting-edge insight and exploring the largest selection of unmanned systems technology available anywhere under one roof.”

Registration for the DRONERESPONDERS Global Summit at XPONENTIAL is now open with special early bird pricing available for credentialed public safety professionals available through March 16, 2020.

The DRONERESONDERS Global Summit is one of many programs taking place at XPONENTIAL 2020.