Drone Show UK - 5th to 6th December 2015 Birmingham NEC

Hi Oliver,
Welcome to the forum and thanks for your post.
As you will see from the majority of comments on here, the show was a disappointment. Of the community members that attended many, if not all will not be returning this year.
For me, way too much space was taken up with the FPV flying net and if you took that away as well as the exhibitors who had production companies and we're looking for work there was very little content at the show.
This was the sentiment from the people I met up with on the weekend I'm afraid.
I would have to think about whether an 'InspirePilots' section/area might be useful where we could meet up and also offer help and advice as we do here but face to face.

I appreciate you taking the time to join and post up on the forum and welcome other members views.
 
Hi @oliver obrien
I would endorse @The Editor comments. I travelled from NE Scotland to attend the show and prepaid for both days. However, as soon as my wife and I walked in I knew that I had over anticipated the event. I am used to the Photography Show at the NEC which offers a great deal for all visitors. The loss of half the hall to the FPV flight zone where nothing was happening apart from a load of teenagers sitting around wearing VR glasses and no aircraft flying was a great waste of available space. I was also not really interested in those stands selling toys. The few stands where there were people I wanted to speak to were inundated with like minded people who wanted to discuss commercial UAV operations. I would have liked to see the CAA and other serious exhibitors there. The ones that were there like Resource Group and Coverdrone needed more space on and around their stands. I sat through several interesting talks (like the BALPA representative) but too little time was allocated to each speaker and there was no time for questions. We stayed less than 3 hours, cancelled our local hotel booking and headed north (partly to avoid the floods in Cumbria). I was greatly disappointed and shall not be attending this year.
 
Reactions: The Editor
Hi, Thanks for taking the time to reply so promptly.

I must admit I'm a little surprised to see some of your views on this.
We had over 70 exhibitors, which included all the main UK based UAV training companies, insurance companies, manufactures, retailers and most things in between. Our speaker section seemed popular and we had some very influential guest speakers on show.

One thing is for sure all our exhibitors will over the moon with the event so it's a shame to you don't agree. Obviously the goal is always to have as many exhibitors as possible but we cannot make people attend in this way and all those that didnt have already expressed interest or booked for the 2016 NEC show.

The FPV racing does require a large area to facilitate it properly, this was a major attraction and really helps people into the industry so I would say it was essential for the space we provided. Our intention was to cover as many aspects of drones as we could and FPV is a massively growing area that needs to be considered as a serious hobby and not just kids playing with toys. With events you are always going to get a blend of ages and taste.

Also, and just to mention the DJI stand actually sold out out of stock on the Saturday so they were obviously very pleased with the event. They also enjoyed the drone agility university challenge they sponsored and even gave the winner a brand new Phantom 3 pro.

Having said all that I will take your comments on board as its always good to get opinions as they matter and motivate for future years. I hope you can accept this was a first show and even show's like the photography show had to start somewhere.

Thanks for keeping the post up and your welcome note on your message. Please have a further think to any ideas for the event if you feel its still has any interest to you.

Have a good 2016.

Best wishes,
 
Hi @oliver obrien
Thank you for noting my comments - I am sure there are others on forum who managed to attend.

The point about the FPV zone was that nothing was happening. It did not stimulate any interest for me. It also meant that the aisles in the stands area were overcrowded so that you could not move around freely and see what exhibitors had on offer. I am pleased that DJI sold out of stock but I would have liked to speak seriously to DJI about their future plans and other technical aspects. I could not readily get to the stand and it only was only there to sell drones - I can do that online.

I wish you better success in future and hope that you can better serve the commercial user more.
 
I think you guys did well considering it was the first, I have done a lot of shows over the years and was a regular at Angling and IT ones for many years so I know what to expect.

It was always going to be tough the first one.

I went on the Sunday only

Now here is my criticism, it felt more of a Christmas shopping event than a show to showcasing products.

DJI had a number of retailers and First Person View were the largest, I found their whole attitude just to sell and had no real interest in discussing the products, a few others were the same but I have got to say the lads at LCE were very nice and chatty and had no issues spending the time talking regardless of purchase.

Yuneec stand was good but again found the staff only interested in slagging off DJI rather than pushing their products merits, once I told them what i had got comment likes "well you better hope it don't brake as DJI support is terrible and they will likely charge you " , also a shocking lack of knowledge around their own product when asked some mildly technical questions.

The 3DR stand was a joke, no staff just a machine


Next time you need to tell them to either put some effort in or refuse their booking as it was a joke.

The real bits I enjoyed were the smaller folks not just selling at the show but just showing their products, they were the the guys who were willing to spend the time taking.

Also would nice to have had more commercial larger stuff there to look over.

As I said It felt more of a pre Christmas shopping event than a show to showcase and demonstrate products.

I will return next year just to have a look as I did enjoy just having a look at some of the stuff, but not the best show Iv been too TBH.
 
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Reactions: The Editor and Scotflieger
Wow, this good to hear, really. Now I don't feel so bad that The Editor withdrew his generous offer for an all-expenses paid trip (which I won rather handily) to the UK to attend.

Hummm... wonder if someone had given him a heads-up on that?
 
Reactions: The Editor

Hi and thanks again for the reply.

I just wanted to pick up on a point made above. The CAA were in attendance on BMFA stand. They chose this option themselves rather than having a there own stand. He is the quote from them about the show.
"Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be there, I very much enjoyed the experience. I thought the show was extremely well organised and achieved significant foot-fall on both days. It was certainly good to have all the main players under one roof".
Corporate Communications
Civil Aviation Authority

I do agree than some of the training companies such as the Resource Group could of had more space around there stands. This is defiantly something we will have in place next year so I do agree with you on this.

Really sorry you felt the show didn't deliver anything for you personally and we will now work even harder to sure the event delivers in other ways this year.

All I can say is we are already over 60% full up so it all promises to be a larger event and all last years exhibitors seem very happy with the outcome of 2015 show.

Thanks again,

Oliver
 

Hi and thanks for the feedback.

I appreciate you opening as it was our first show and glad you have taken that part into consideration.

As for the Yuneec stand, obviously we don't have any powers over the way an exhibitor delivers themselves or their products. Apologies if you did see it like this.

3DR- This was not a dedicated 3DR stand. Its was part of the UAV humanitarian award. Two 3DR staff were in attendance of this area on the Saturday and it was an area only to showcase the missions for the award on the large screen. 3DR were one of the sponsors of the award so this is why they supplied a simulator. On reflection I do agree with you that this area did not work to well and we have noted this for next year.

We do intend to increase the commercial side of the show. It was always billed as a consumer show but we are now planning a whole commercial and aerial photography section. I do agree the show needs to progress into this. Maybe a Inspire pilots zone would also work well.

I appreciate you thoughts in general and glad to see you would consider returning. Be very glad to hear any additional ideas from you as feedback is the main way we improve for all.

Thanks for taking the time out to voice you thoughts.

Kind regards
Oliver
 
Hi and thanks for the reply. I appreciate it was hard to identify there presence. Originally they were to have there own stand and last minute one of the CAA staff had to pull out as he had a personal situation arise. Staff wise in the UAV section of the CAA they are currently very limited which meant the BMFA stepping in to facilitate them. Admittedly now we should of announced this throughout the day so I do apologies for this. Something I shall feedback to the team.
I do hope you can attend again and I would be happy to send you a couple of free tickets for the 2016 event as a way of trying to fix some of the issues you had.

Kind regards,

Oliver
 
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