To conclude our series of exclusive interviews, our final interviewee is the event organiser himself, Joel Davis Founder & CEO of JD Events. Prior to founding JD Events in January of 2002, Joel spent 16 years as a senior executive in the tradeshow and conference industry. He began his event management career with Reed Exhibition Companies and left Reed in 1996 to serve as President of Primedia/Intertec Exhibitions (now Penton Media), and subsequently served as President and COO of eMarketWorld and Vice President/General Manager of Imark Communications.
Joel has a genuine passion for the events business combined with a deeply held belief in the value of face-to-face marketing and community building. He has been a member of the Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO) since 1996 and has served on the SISO Executive Committee.
Joel, you have a successful career as a professional events organiser – how do you know when a business sector is mature enough to support an industry trade show and conference?
There’s no exact science to it. You never really know for sure. Launching a new show, just like launching any new business, is always a big gamble. The key, in my opinion is to always take the long-term view. First, we look for emerging markets that will be around for the long–term vs hot new techy trends that may fizzle out after a few years. Once you’ve identified the opportunity, timing the market entry is always the next big challenge as you would much rather be a little too early to market than a little too late. If you are committed to the long-term view then you can launch on the early side and establish the beachhead so that when the market takes off your brand has already earned credibility as the industry leader and is well positioned to serve the industry for the long-term. This is of course our plan for Drone World Expo.
How far ahead of the first event do you typically start planning the operation?
In the proverbial perfect world it would be 18 months. Anything less than 12 months of planning time is unlikely to be successful. We began researching the drone market in May of 2014 and 18 months later we will hold the first Drone World Expo. We began assembling the Advisory Board, securing the venue and developing the sales and marketing plan in November of 2014…exactly 12 months out.
You’ve put together an impressive advisory board of industry experts to help with the agenda of the conference, which is commendable – but how on earth are you able to (correctly!) identify such key players when you come from outside the business…?
During our research phase we reached out to and met with dozens of influential industry leaders. Everyone was very open and forthcoming. We were advised on the state of the industry and we learned that there was no single event purely focused on the needs of all the commercial end user sectors. When we began explaining our event concept to these key industry players we received exceptionally positive and encouraging feedback. We spoke with many vendors but mostly we reached out to the end user companies for feedback and these were the people that we invited to sit on our Board to help develop the inaugural DWE conference program. Our goal, which we achieved, was to assemble an Advisory Board that represented the entire commercial drone ecosystem and to build a conference program that positioned Drone World Expo as the industry’s thought leadership event.
What makes Drone World Expo different from the other events that we’ve seen in the US this year…?
There are several important differentiators. First and foremost, Drone World Expo is the only conference and tradeshow that is purely focused on the commercial applications of drone technology across all vertical market sectors. Unlike other events that focus on military applications, or on consumers and hobbyists, or more narrow market sectors like mapping or agriculture. Plus we are the only drone event that has chosen Silicon Valley as our home base. We are positioned in the epicenter of the commercial drone universe where literally thousands of commercial end users and industry players can drive to the show. Additionally we are the one truly unbiased drone tradeshow that is devised by the commercial drone industry for the commercial drone industry via our Advisory Board. Other events are controlled and heavily influenced by association politics and/or media company agendas. JD Events is not in the association management or the publishing business, therefore Drone World Expo can function as the Switzerland of events and welcome all the industry stakeholders into our tent.
What are your predictions for this event in terms of exhibitors and visitor numbers ?
Our attendee pre-registration numbers look great and have exceeded our own expectations. I am confident that we will have in excess of 1500 real attendees at the show – not including exhibitors and press. We will have approximately 75 exhibiting companies occupying nearly 100 booths on the tradeshow floor – featuring many of the world’s leading manufacturers, technology companies and services providers for commercial drone operators to meet with.
Are you already planning Drone World Expo 2016 – If so can you tell us anything about it at this point?
Absolutely. We have already booked the San Jose Convention Center for the 2nd annual Drone World Expo to be held November 15-16, 2016. Please mark your calendars.
[UAS Vision is an Official Media Partner for Drone World Expo – Ed.]