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Next event in the last quarter of 2025
Great participation at the tenth edition of Dronitaly, the event for civil drones for professional use organized by BolognaFiere Water&Energy (BFWE), which took place from 9 to 11 October 2024 in Bologna (www.dronitaly.it).
Over 2,500 visitors, around 80 national and international speakers of the highest level and 50 exhibitors in 1,500 square meters have in fact enlivened this edition of Dronitaly, making it a national and international key event for the exchange of best practices and ideas for all operators of the drone sector.
All the conferences took place at the ConventionHUB, an open area of 400 square meters in the center of the mega pavilion, designed by architect Giancarlo Zema, Guest Designer and Art Director of Dronitaly, where were located the area for B2B meetings with stakeholders and a selection of the best projects in progress, including the EHang216-S drone.
The three-day event saw institutions on the front line: Valentina Orioli, Councilor for New Mobility of the Municipality of Bologna, Davide Galimberti, Mayor of Varese, and Adriano Gilli, Head of the Attractiveness, Internationalization and Research Sector of the Emilia Romagna Region all attended. Vincenzo Colla, Councilor for Economic Development and Green Economy, Work, Training and International Relations of the Emilia-Romagna Region, was also present.
"Bologna has always been a very important trade fair hub in Italy and lately the city is also working hard to innovate the sector of mobility and sustainable mobility. Therefore, hosting a fair dealing with drones is important for us, since we already know of very relevant applications of drones for the transport of objects or for monitoring the territory. We can now imagine a fairly near future in which drones will also transport people and become another piece of the mosaic that is sustainable mobility in cities", commented Valentina Orioli.
"As a Region, we participated in Dronitaly because for the past couple of years we have been carrying out a project for the internationalization of the companies that make up the Region’s ecosystem and wish to enter the aerospace sector in countries such as the United States, Japan and Korea", remarked Adriano Gilli, who added: "we hope to see an ever-increasing number of companies become part of this still restricted circle, which nevertheless offers excellent growth opportunities and allows us to also look at the educational aspect".
For the first time, Dronitaly has also opened to the presence of foreign companies from Korea, Spain, USA, China, France, Germany, Slovakia.
ENAC and its South Korean counterpart, Korea Institute of Aviation Safety Technology (KIAST), signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” during the event, on the occasion of Dronitaly, which is part of ENAC’s international cooperation activity which consists of similar agreements, in various domains, with many other countries.
The next edition of Dronitaly will be held in the last quarter of 2025, again at the Bologna exhibition center.
“We are proud of the great success achieved this year. This edition of Dronitaly was particularly full of important innovations and interesting data: there were debates and presentations of studies and research on the sector. But not only that. Visitors were able to see first-hand different models of drones with the most advanced technologies and companies were able to present the most innovative projects”, said Paolo Angelini, CEO of BFWE.
“This year Dronitaly was able to make a qualitative leap in terms of presence of Italian and foreign exhibitors, participation of institutions and insights presented, designing the near future of the sector” - commented Antonio Bruzzone, CEO of BolognaFiere -. “As always, Bologna and Emilia-Romagna acted as attractors for the great work that the institutions are carrying out for sustainable mobility. But drones and the technological innovations accompanying them will impact many sectors with their various industrial applications: from the prevention of hydrogeological instability, to the monitoring of infrastructures and crops, from mapping to the inspection of industrial sites, to emergency response and security surveillance, to deliveries. I am therefore sure that this event will give us great satisfaction”.
Leonardo is the Event Partner of the event. Platinum Sponsor: Bluenest, EHang, eVertisky and Polis Consulting. Gold Sponsor: Abzero, Aiviewgroup, d-flight, Rina, Smartko, Solapave.
Twenty-seven Sponsors and 19 Media Partners. Watergas.it Main Media Partner.
Dronitaly took place in conjunction with Fueling Tomorrow, event dealing with the transformation of fuels and the use of new energy vectors in the transport and industrial sectors, with a view to ecological transition.
- Many debates on new technologies, research, funding, regulations
Main theme of the event was that of Innovative Air Mobility, with a focus on the state of the art of the construction of vertiports and of new aircrafts with low environmental impact fuel. The debate took stock on public funding, on the PNRR funds available, on the role of U-space, on the regulation and legislation of the sector, on technologies relating to activities that are carried out remotely such as inspections, surveys, surveillance, research, rescue, environmental monitoring. And again, research, training and technology transfer were discussed as key axes for the development of the market of drones for professional use.
The debates saw the participation of leading national and international speakers: representatives of Enac, Enav, Assorpas, EASA, EUROCONTROL, JEDA, CNR, Politecnico di Miliano.
"CNR’s presence at Dronitaly focuses on the operation of new calls and new economic resources such as PNRR. Cooperation between the public and private sectors is essential to make Italian excellence the key to the development of innovative instruments and application methodologies to finalize investments, thus generating new jobs", said Andrea Berton, National Research Council (CNR).
Regarding research and training, Leonardo's Drone Contest took place and saw the victory of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, out of seven involved.
- From research to project
Wandering around the exhibition stands, it was also possible to observe the ZEFHIR U-750 helicopter drone produced by Curti Aerospace.
And again: Poste Italiane and Leonardo illustrated the "Servizio pilota Isole Minori" project, whose experimentation began last summer with the aim of testing a daily freight transport system with drones capable of carrying loads of up to 40 kilograms.
Finally, Federbalneari Italia and ABzero signed a cooperation agreement for the promotion and dissemination of devices designed to efficiently, safely and rapidly transport precious and highly perishable goods, such as blood and blood components from donations, organs, special medicines or life-saving instruments along the 8,000 km of coastline of the Italian Peninsula.
- National and international companies being the protagonists at Dronitaly
Many leading companies in the sector, both national and international, were present at the event. Like the giant EHang, which chose Dronitaly to present for the first time in Italy its latest model of self-driving electric passenger drone.
During the event, Assorpas, Politecnico di Milano and some associated Italian companies held a meeting with Korean companies participating in the Korean Pavilion. An initiative aimed at facilitating the dialogue between Italy and foreign countries.
For further information:
BFWE Press Office: ufficiostampa@mirumir.it // https://www.bfwe.it/
Accompanying images: https://www.bfwe.it/mirumir/download/downloader.php?id=553
