I can see you going ‘whatever’ on me. I spent an hour with one of the top experts on drones in the US. Give me 10 minutes of reading time and I promise you will be interested in what I have to say about drones.
I had a chance to spend some time with James ‘Heidi’ Fleitz of Avisight. With a past saving lives and completing missions as a drone pilot for the U.S Air Force, Heidi gave me some powerful insights into the potential of drones, still entirely untapped in the event industry.
Drone Streaming
Have you heard about drone streaming recently? This is because the whole industry read our annual trends report and streaming live video through drones was one of the top trends.
Live video from drones makes the experience more immersive. It creates a unique POV that more events can adopt cheaply.
When I discussed this option with Heidi, he looked quite unimpressed. ‘You are so 2002’ his face seemed to say.
Security
If you are as concerned as we are about the safety of your events, you would probably look into drones as means to keep your event secure.
For large events, drones can be equipped with cameras that forecast with extreme precision potential problems happening at your event. Whether it is a rather simple crowd control issue or a more complex security breach.
In the near future drones will be equipped with technology able to understand whether weapons are being introduced at events. While not much is known, it seems drones will power such a security revolution.
WiFi and Phone Reception
Wifi does not work at events. It doesn’t. It upsets event professionals and attendees. It makes venues go mad. Everybody keeps being bothered, but nobody seems to find a solution.
Drones can actually help by working as cell towers. They can become additional cells to ensure continuity of signal and access to existing mobile networks at events. When WiFi networks get crowded, more attendees rely on existing mobile plans to access the Internet and make calls.
At large events, cells get immediately crowded, and the insult of not having reception is added to the injury of poor WiFi.
Analytics
I was at the same time scared and excited by the amount of data drones are capable of collecting these days. By far one of the most common applications of drones outside of the consumer world.
Giving exact numbers of people attending free events or passing by a booth remains a challenge. While I like tiles that measure steps, drones seem to be a much more portable and cost effective solution.
The ability to correctly analyze how many people are in a given location is just one tool available in the suite of drone analytics and by far not one of the most sophisticated ones. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are in fact the two key elements of the future of drones.
Dedicated ecosystems of drone apps are popping up augmenting the applications of these powerful tools in multiple industries.
In Conclusion
Whether you are planning large or small events and your objective is to connect, secure or engage attendees, it seems that drones will play a major role in the event industry.
Have you experienced new uses of drones in events? Let us know in the comment section below.
