Eszter Kovács is the CEO and Founder of Manageld Ltd and DroneTalks.online, and Acting Secretary General of Global UTM Association
What’s the aim of DroneTalks?
We set up https://dronetalks.online/ to educate and inform the entire drone ecosystem about the latest news, regulatory issues, technical achievements and trends, and to help stakeholders understand what different organisations and companies throughout the industry are doing.
We are also tackling the issue of social acceptance. We want to show that drone technology is something that is happening right now, not just in the future, and we want to highlight all of the amazing, sometimes life-saving, drone operations today to dispel some of the fears that those outside of the industry may have. In the long term, we would like to create links with schools, local communities and even cities, everyone who will be an end user of drone services. We want to connect the ecosystem with the users’ perspective and get the messages out about all of the exciting developments that are occurring behind the scenes.
How will you structure the platform so visitors can find the particular topic which interests them and the appropriate expert?
The system is very user friendly, we tag each video with the subject matter and each speaker has a maximum of ten minutes. We take issues like safety, privacy and social acceptance and ask guests to talk directly about what needs to be done. We are currently adding new videos at the rate of one per week and we are looking to add more contributions from women and other experts to add greater diversity to our platform. We engage, we listen and we learn.
What will the site look like in two years’ time?
Everything depends on what the market needs. As a drone ecosystem player, I want to listen to the CEOs of Kittyhawk, Unifly and other key companies, find out what their vision is and why people are investing millions of dollars into drones. What do investors see that other people don’t see?
I also see the education part of this growing to encompass schools, universities and non-profit organisations which will all enhance the drone education programme.
How much of the drone ecosystem will you cover?
The whole chain – the users, service providers, UTM providers, manufacturers, aviation stakeholders, air navigation service providers and regulators. We cover the whole eco-system. We really want to look at the internal workings of these organisations. If people want to know what’s behind drone delivery, for example, they will be able to come to our platform and understand everything that goes into it. Similarly, we have regulatory experts who are able to explain what they are doing and their views on industry related regulation and policy. It’s a question of making everything understandable and accessible to all.
How do you choose the people to interview?
From my experience as acting secretary general of GUTMA, and CEO of my own agency, if I come across anyone who is interesting and engaging then I invite them. But we are also open to external inputs, so if any of your readers have a good story to tell, or know of anyone in the industry with a good story to tell, they can fill in the form on our website and we will interview them. We have an open platform. We are open to suggestions. It’s all audience-driven.
How many people are watching the videos?
We launched just over a month ago and we already have between 3,000 and 4,000 visitors, which shows there is definitely a need for this format. If the content is good and it meets a need then I believe it will grow organically. We don’t really advertise, we believe in collaboration and believe that good quality, interesting content will draw in the audience.
For example, we are partnered with Unmanned Airspace, the Greater Geneva Bern area (GGBa – the official investment promotion agency for Western Switzerland) and others which I cannot share yet.
Will you move into the urban air mobility/advanced air mobility sector?
In time we may well be open to that, but at the moment we are focused on drones. UAM and AAM are of course an evolution of the drone market and we will keep listening and learning as they develop.
For more information visit DroneTalks website:http://www.dronetalks.online
Or follow the initiative on their social media platforms. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
Unmanned Airspace and Dronetalks are media partners
