FAA chief to address drone conference Wednesday in Las Vegas

A talk from the “top dog” of the FAA on Wednesday marks day one of InterDrone, a three-day conference at Paris Las Vegas dedicated to commercial drones.

Classes and panels kick off at 9 a.m., starting with “10 Drone Tips for Successful Videos.”

The first keynote speaker will be Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael Huerta at 10 a.m.

“He’s the top, top dog, and the fact that he’s come out to address the commercial UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle market) at InterDrone is a real feather in the conference’s cap,” said InterDrone Chairman Ted Bahr.

“The FAA recently passed new laws in terms of how commercial drones could operate; it’s called part 107,” Bahr said, adding that the laws went into effect Aug. 29. “So, there’s going to be a lot of chatter about that.”

Other panels throughout the day include “Enforcing Civil UAV Flights — Everything You Need to Know, Part I,” which will address the issue of law enforcement having limited means of determining no-fly zones and citing drone-use violations.

The first day will have panels about using UAVs in emergency response situations and emerging technology, such as first-person view flying, which allows professionals to gain real-time access to a live video stream from their remotely piloted aircraft.

The exhibition hall will host close to 160 companies, many debuting new technologies and prototypes.

“I think you will see a continued increase in the emphasis on developing air traffic control systems that will allow for the integration of unmanned vehicles into the national airspace,” said Richard Jost, a director of Las Vegas law firm Fennemore Craig Jones Vargas. Jost is general counsel for the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems, which works with the governor’s economic development office and acts as a clearinghouse for drone-related business opportunities.

“I think you will also see more effort and more money being spent trying to develop more effective sensors that will detect, and, better yet, avoid other objects in the sky,” Jost said.

About 4,000 commercial drone enthusiasts are expected to attend, including what Bahr calls “drone service businesses.”

“The industry is growing rapidly, and there is a large and growing category of entrepreneurial companies that are being formed to do the drone work for construction sites, for mining, for pipelines, for basically all the commercial applications that are out there,” Bahr said.

These companies might “help the farmer by flying drones over their field, or help the builder by flying over a construction project, or things like that,” he said.

This week’s InterDrone conference is the second. Last year there were 2,797 attendees with nearly 100 exhibiting companies.

Contact Nicole Raz at nraz@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @JournalistNikki on Twitter.