UK Drone show at the NEC....

[stevescleenz]

Anybody off to the drone show this weekend at the NEC, im off there tomorrow 

[daryl.hill]

I';m off there tomorrow 

Am hoping for some bargains as I';m looking to buy parts for my first proper quad build.

[Hozza]

I';m going on the 4th

[gas axe]

I am off in a mo0000
just waiting for my son to get out of bed

[Cheredanine]

There is already a bread on this, if you find it you can see some more attendees, bit late but LuMan has some forum stickers so we can identify other people from here :)
(Going tomorrow)

[LuMan]

Yes, I';ll be there!! 

@Hozza - I';ll have a sticker on my bag and the strap, so stop me if you see me, and say ';hello';

@Steve - No spoilers!! 

@Cheredanine - Hope to see you there! 

Oooooh! I';m SO excited!! 

[stevescleenz]

Dont get to excited 

[Wyntrblue]

Want to spend money at show... have to wait for the other half to get out of bed with hang over and have coffee and get dressed..... tomorow morning is going to go sooooo slowly

[Hozza]

Yes, I';ll be there!! 

@Hozza - I';ll have a sticker on my bag and the strap, so stop me if you see me, and say ';hello';

@Steve - No spoilers!! 

@Cheredanine - Hope to see you there! 

Oooooh! I';m SO excited!! 

I';m going to be wearing a hoodie with SNF Hozza on the back

[Wyntrblue]

I look like this

But will be wearing a hat and looking very very tired.... no idea what time I will get there mind you as I need to wait for the other half to wake up n stuff

[LuMan]

Well, I spectacularly managed to dodge ALL of you!! 

But, I hope you had a good time if you went. When I first walked in I thought I';d be out again in about an hour and a half. But, I did actually stay until it was nearly done, and had a great time. The demos and races in the middle ';track'; section were entertaining and I was impressed with the speed of some of the cars.

I was also glad to see how average the Typhoon H was. Sadly. I was really looking forward to the demo and, although it was good, it didn';t blow me away like I wanted it to. I could set up my S550 to do that sort of stuff, perhaps with a better camera, too.

The racing in Hall 18 was also good fun. I loved the neon effect, and hope to see more. Although the venue needed more big screens with FPV streams (could only see 1) and stepped viewing areas. Maybe next year.

I spoke to almost everyone! Most helpful, but some looked like it was a chore. I flowed a sticker to Artorus (I think that';s his handle) at i-Drone, who was really happy to see another forum member I and got some FPV stuff from him. I also got some tri-blades from Phil at Make It Build It, who was also a really top bloke. Prices were about as good as internet prices, but it was nice to actually buy them face to face.

It';s still (relatively) early days. I hope next year is busier, as there were folk there, but not enough to really show how good the hobby (or sport) is. But, then again, that';s why people like us are here :)

[Wyntrblue]

I had a good time. Spent a pile of cash and have some fatsharks and a vendetta sat on my kitchen table awaiting some time to get them sorted. 

[Cheredanine]

I wore my sticker and saw no one else wearing one

I did stand next to some guy trying to get a discount on a vandetta, I think from makeitbuildit and told him it was a good quad :)

[Hozza]

Was wearing my hoodie and saw no one either lol, was hanging out in the pits with pboy for a bit, spent a bit of time chatting to Greg at the menace rc stand and brought another invader patch plus one of his raptor antennas to try out.

All in all a good day.

[LuMan]

I was actually wearing 3 stickers - one on my bag and two on the strap (front and back).

I suppose the issue was that I was looking at stuff, not people :)

I did hop onto the wifi and post in the Shout section that I was at the coffee bar near Speaker';s Corner.

Perhaps next year we could arrange a proper meet, if we get organised enough. 

[JeremyE]

I was at home...as last years show I found rather terrible. I';ve also read very mixed reviews on this years show on a bunch Facebook groups so I';m glad i stayed at home. Here are some suggestions for future shows though:

- Have a designated area/table with forum branding. That way its easy for forumites to find, meet and chat. It would also be a gateway for new people to the forum.

- Get some of the stores to offer show discounts. Last year i did not see a single discount, in fact I could find gear cheaper online and the drive, parking and entrance fee came to way more than postage would be.

- I heard there were qualifiers for general racers this year which was nice. An improvement on last year. But one thing that is always lacking, is a basic demo area where a member of the public can try their hand at flying something like a Hubsan X4 or Eachine E010. There';s no reason this can';t be done and i';m sure it would help the multirotor bug bite and increase sales.

- Full set of feeds for the FPV races.

- Laser tag quads. When you hit, your quad disables and crashes out. Nothing quite like a good quad dog-fight...

We should have a brain storming area for future shows :)

[Budgie RC]

I was there Sunday and unfortunatly didnt bump into any of you. I did like the racing first time i had ever seen a race in person ans was entertaining. Me and my brother thogh did bump into Mike brewer from wheeler dealer fame there My brother got to shake his hand and recongnise him before me though and he was gone before i knew it, but did bump into him a few more time but he looked rather busy then. I managed to pick up a set of motors and ESC';s from makeitbuildit. WE only stayed until 2 though as once we had done a few laps of the place and had a big hair in my brothers expensive hot dog (Got a refund) we figured it was time to go.

[LuMan]

@JeremyE - I sort of understand where you';re coming from. But, like I said earlier, it';s still fairly new, but it did sort out the true enthusiasts from the sorts that buy off the shelf drones and fly them like idiots. Hopefully the show will help to educate newcomers to be a little more responsible - although I did see a few kids opening and flying their new toys in the Atrium!! 

As for...

Forum Branding Area - totally agree. If there';s nothing there next year, we can just pick a spot and nominate it a meeting area. Or see if we can have a table out of the way for next to nothing. I reckon that';s what Drone magazine did. I only found them by accident! 

Show discounts - Absolutely. And you';re right about the additional cost of car parking and HUGELY expensive catering! I noticed some sellers doing ';show discounts'; on old store stock, ex-demo stock and exactly the same as their online shop stock!

Customer fly zones - yep.. Although this could prove expensive if any old bod could rock up and sling a race quad about  . There was actually a fly-zone far-right of the hall, where you could fling some small quads about safely. There was also an RC car track, but mainly for kids. Some exhibitors did have small flying booths, but you could only really hover in them.

FPV Race Feed - Absolutely. Beam it out and let folk watch on their goggles or diversities. That would be great.

Laser tag - If not lasers, then streamers. Should be fun!

Brain-storing for next show - Good idea. If we start up a thread now, then we can pass it to the organisers in exchange for a free exhibitor stall!! 

[JAB1a]

Hi all,

I kept an eye out for any Multi-rotor stickers all weekend but sadly didn';t see anyone, I do hope you had some fun and found the trip to be ';worth it';, for the pilots there its always amazing to have a crowd reacting to the action as it adds to the nerves/adrenaline of the task at hand 

I think there was too much downtime between races to keep a good crowd hooked, so I hope that gets improved. Here is some footage of the racing, it lacks the view of the DVR footage showing how terrible the video reception was but its still fun....

! No longer available

[Cheredanine]

Have to agree, talked the missus into watching the HD race on Sunday, they kept announcing it and not starting, she was well unipressed

[Cheredanine]

Anyone pick up a program at the drone show and still has it? If so please pm me