On 25-27 October 2011 the UAS Latin America conference & exhibition took place at the Technology Park in Sao José dos Campos in Brazil. The conference, which was organised, under the auspices of UVS International, jointly by Blyenburgh & Co, France and Organização Brasilieira para o Desenvolvimento da Certificação Aeronautica (DCA-BR), Brazil, brought together 152 delegates from 18 countries and was opened by Carlos Eduardo Pellegrino, the director of ANAC, the Brazilian civil aviation authority.
The event featured 17 Brazilian and 24 non-Brazilian presentations divided into the following categories: governmental entities (9), regulatory organisations (4), research organisations (3), standards organisations (2), academia (2) and industry (22). The presenting organisations originated from the following countries: Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, India, Israel, Netherland, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA, and also included 2 European pluri-national organizations and 2 international organisations.
The event highlighted many of the ongoing UAS-related research & development projects, as well as already ongoing, as well as upcoming, non-military and military UAS operations currently taking place in Latin America, and brought to the forefront the enormous potential for UAS operations in Latin America. In addition, the conference also clearly illustrated the requirement for rapidly starting with the implementation of national and international UAS regulatory frameworks.