Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) will hold its second annual Public Safety UAS Conference for first responders and public safety professionals on March 5-7, 2018.
The 2018 Public Safety UAS Conference will be held at King Family Vineyards in Crozet, Va. It is intended for law enforcement, public safety, search and rescue, emergency services, and disaster relief professionals who are using or who are in the process of adopting drones as part of their operations. The three-day conference will include a series of workshops, breakout sessions, networking events, and disaster and response demonstrations and trainings.
Conference presenters will include representatives from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Transportation Safety Board, along with a variety of public safety experts from Virginia, Delaware, Florida, Texas, Maryland, Nevada, Georgia, Massachusetts and New York. Presenters will discuss the adoption and integration of UAS in first response, law enforcement and emergency management.
Several UAS technology companies, including FLIR, DJI, Yuneec, PrecisionHawk, Pix4D, SwissDrones, Altus, Altavian, Flyability, Flymotion US, Kongsberg Geospatial, HoverFly and others will be on-site to demonstrate hardware and software platforms.
The cost to attend the conference is $249 per person. This includes all meals and access to all training exercises, classes, product demonstrations and networking events. Attendance is limited to 185 participants, with preference given to public safety, fire, rescue, law enforcement and other emergency or disaster response members or affiliated organizations. Attendees are responsible for their own hotel accommodations and travel arrangements, notes PVCC.
The first conference, held in 2017, brought together more than 21 state and national agencies and 14 UAS technology vendors, as well as 225 attendees, the college says.
PVCC launched its UAS program in 2015 and held its first class for first responders in May 2016. Since then, PVCC has trained over 250 individuals and more than a dozen agencies, including federal, state and local personnel, in drone technology, operations and integration.
