Drone Expo December 13th, 2014

[Prylar Bek]

Frankly, I'm surprised the 'Staff Pro" security let them range on as long as they did

 

[SilentAV8R]

What a bust. And talks disrupted by anti drone demonstrators! Lots of people. Less booths. And expeneive

4

Yep. Waste of time, money, and effort. Only thing of interest to me was I knew several of the vendors so I got a chance to chat with them. But the show itself was not worth the effort.

 

[Prylar Bek]

Cant believe $15 to park and $30 or the tic!!! Never again. Agreed, a few cool vendors for cases and such..no official DJI booth, the idiot flying some drone got it caught in the netting of the cage...bust all the way around... dull and boring

 

[SilentAV8R]

I got there late, but I did not see anyone flying outside. Did some guys get some air time??

 

[Prylar Bek]

Not to my knowledge

 

[ianwood]

Agree it was a disappointment. I was hoping/expecting to see the air full of machines. Instead they put it in what felt like a WWII fallout shelter. I found two booths with interesting things and the rest were just vendors with stuff I've already seen.

As for the protestors, I couldn't resist having some fun sparring with them. But they really had nothing compelling to say so I pushed on.

Did anyone meet up? I was in and out of there in under an hour.

 

[Prylar Bek]

Hard core. Did three passes and left in 45m. B O R I N G. The group that put this on needs it re think what this event should be. I will never spend another $45 to do this A big waste of $. If they can t get the LA community out there, what are they hoping for in other cities?

 

[knuckles]

I don't understand why they didn't even have a program list for who would be presenting on the stage and what time they would be talking about at what times. They could have either put it on the screen. Website or a handout in the bags.
What happened to the workshops with the legal experts on filing a 333 not that I think it's worth filing though.
I was disappointed I didn't see any workshops or something on aerial photography, skill improvement or something.
The highlight for me was seeing captain Dave presenting and sharing the vids on his whale watching etc. The vendor stuff was interesting but way out of my price range and no live demos I saw.

 

[Prylar Bek]

Agreed A total waste of time The UAV group putting this on has no idea what they are doing! I hope when or if they export this to other cities you guys boycott it.

 

[MadMitch88]

I knew this whole L.A. thing was going to be lame as F--K.

I'm unpopular in here when I say it --- but it needs to be said --- "drones" won't become mainstream like cell phones or Internet until they have real UTILITY --- which basically means delivering products to consumers. Commercial delivery of products by UAV is the "killer app", and it's pointless to have "expos" until the FAA opens up the floodgates to allow the commercial side to flourish.

Trying to get the masses excited enough to plunk down $2-3,000 for an aerial videography machine is NOT going to be a paradigm shift.

Sorry, but that's the cold, hard truth.

 

[eckoner]

I spend $15 to $20 to park at least a few times per week
I had many productive meetings and it was great to have those I have
Been in contact with for years and finally got to meet in person
Did a a few interviews, made some great contacts, and the protesters who was
A group of about 30 people came in yelled stuff and was peacefully guided thru the cramped
Conf floor and right out the back door all within 10 mins so yes 1 discussion out of 20 were
Disrupted by the protestors


It was the first and likely had a pretty good turnout considering
The organizers don't see it as a bust and most people there were
Happy to talk drone stuff with hundreds of others that shared the same passion

Yeah there was a bad seed who called one of the protestors a "N" word but a lot of
People who share our passion for the technology happen to be a bit left behind
Or perhaps have been forced to carry on racist family traditions lol
But that's part of our quilt right just grin and bear it

 

[hionbusa]

I got there around 11am. The only protesters I saw were a bunch of parolees against LAPD using drones for surveillance. Guess I missed the rest of the group.
The expo was typical of what you would expect from a new industry that's still trying to find a "proper " name for itself.
UAV or Drone.

Dji booth was there but it seemed like all the reps were either jetlagged or lacked profound technical knowledge.. My main reason for going was to check out the new dji inspire 1 which I got to do and inspect. I got a chance to talk to couple youtube stars , Dronefly COO Jeremy was pleasant to chat with about their company and future projects.

Plexidrone is an interesting concept . As with every new fast lucrative industry, there are a lot of people there that have no business standing behind a booth.

I was disappointed with the flying area which was the size of a batting cage .. I'm sure the show will get better every year.


Here is a little video of the inspire demo at dji
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqeB1Z3yZds[/youtube]

 

[eckoner]

Hahahahahaha

Lol rolling on hardwood laughing

I did see many people there who I'm sure we're not comfy being out of the cave per se but anyone with social skills and passion being in that invironment lol not sure how you could not walk away with at least one positive take away lol

Baffling

But I went there with a schedule of meetings and having been part of the whole tech conf scene for over 20 years I guess I knew what to expect and for the most part was pleased

Yeah it was too cramped and they could have used more space to spread things out but the venue was awesome indoor and out and the programming was ok but I know a few who were asked to buy booths and declined due to price but it was based on not knowing how many people were going to show

I'm sure every year going forward will be better but still you can please some of the people some of the time but you can please all of the people all of the time lol

 

[SilentAV8R]

I guess for me was seeing several folks I have known for some time. Jay at Aerial Media Pros, The RC Depot guys (great heli shop!!), Mark from Dinogy lipos, Skip Miller at UASUSA, ran into some old friends in the crowd, and did not see anything really new. Having said that, it is nice to see the actual hardware IRL.

 

[eckoner]

there were a few guys flying but for some reason i kept seeing the LAPD Bell Ranger overhead so i idnt fly because i already had footage of the venue site
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPnvIo38twY[/youtube]

 

[Prylar Bek]

I got there around 11am. The only protesters I saw were a bunch of parolees against LAPD using drones for surveillance. Guess I missed the rest of the group.
The expo was typical of what you would expect from a new industry that's still trying to find a "proper " name for itself.
UAV or Drone.

Dji booth was there but it seemed like all the reps were either jetlagged or lacked profound technical knowledge.. My main reason for going was to check out the new dji inspire 1 which I got to do and inspect. I got a chance to talk to couple youtube stars , Dronefly COO Jeremy was pleasant to chat with about their company and future projects.

Plexidrone is an interesting concept . As with every new fast lucrative industry, there are a lot of people there that have no business standing behind a booth.

I was disappointed with the flying area which was the size of a batting cage .. I'm sure the show will get better every year.


Here is a little video of the inspire demo at dji
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqeB1Z3yZds[/youtube]

thats a joke right? "the inspire demo..."? WHAT DEMO? They didn't/couldn't/wouldn't fly it when I was there! All these comments are valid I guess. Maybe my expectations were set too high. I didn't see any of the smaller players for accessories (was it too expensive for them too attend? maybe the show promoters should have charged less for space so these people could have showed up...dunno). I could not find a thing to buy...no good swag (sorry I'm NOT spending $25 for a crappy pressed on UAV/USA cheapie T-shirt!) And DJI did NOT have a booth. They were working out of a retail vendors booth selling some PTV's. If I were the marketing guys at DJI I would have been giving out all kinds of freebies...stickers...hats...t shirts etc. How much could that cost? We all know that DJI has a HUGH PR problem..who is running this company??????

 

[hionbusa]

3d robotics head quarters are less than 140 miles away from the expo ,they have a well spoken CEO and funding from Good 'Ol Richard Branson.. COmpletely MIA.

Poor marketing from the organiser due lack of funding many vendors had as little as 1 weeks notice to make it there.

DJI reps were DJI employees for a fact.

 

[Prylar Bek]

Right. One PR guy and a tech rep neither of which had any concrete answers or info. And what about Octofilms? Wanted to see on a big monitor what their footage looked. Like it. And let's not forget the dudes from Myth Busters? Would have made a good snd bite for local Media (interesting that the DJI PR machine could not induce ONE local radio or TV station out there to get a decent story. This company has issues on all fronts

 

[hionbusa]

Right. One PR guy and a tech rep neither of which had any concrete answers or info. And what about Octofilms? Wanted to see on a big monitor what their footage looked. Like it. And let's not forget the dudes from Myth Busters? Would have made a good snd bite for local Media (interesting that the DJI PR machine could not induce ONE local radio or TV station out there to get a decent story. This company has issues on all fronts

Issues . You are right . Here is one of them
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uu1aims793yj9 ... xhibit.pdf

As far as ansustainable company, I don't think so... DJI stands where Apple stood back in the 1980s with the Apple 2 computer.

 

[Prylar Bek]

WOW. What an interesting document! And when/if GP enters the market, DJI might be where pac man went...oblivion (except for retro games of course...LOL)