Keynotes

Detroit Welcome

Forged in Detroit: Industry, Innovations, and Resilience

Fireside Chat

This discussion traces the historical arc from Detroit’s industrial revolution and World War II mobilization to today’s autonomy movement highlighting how supply chains, manufacturing capacity, and industrial policy remain foundational to resilience, innovation, and national competitiveness.

Closing Remarks & Reception Kickoff

Community Address

The Community Address grounds the audience in AUVSI’s mission, outlines what matters most in the year ahead, and issues clear calls to action for industry, government, and partners as autonomy scales globally.

Federal Regulatory Voice on Autonomy

Senior leaders will offer perspectives on the evolving regulatory environment for drones and advanced air mobility, with a focus on safety, integration, and enabling innovation at scale.

Speakers to be announced

Scaling What Works: From Breakthrough to Deployment

A candid look at what it takes to move advanced technologies into the field at speed. This keynote will address the realities shaping today’s innovation pipeline, from supply chain fragility and commercial-first acquisition to the execution-focused partnerships required to sustain multidomain drone dominance. This session sets a pragmatic tone for how the U.S. can scale capability, not just invent it.

From Strategy to Steel: Securing the Technologies that Power Autonomy

Autonomous systems are becoming foundational to commercial logistics, energy, manufacturing, and defense. But the technologies that power them, like semiconductors, rare earth elements, advanced materials, sit inside globally fragile supply chains. In an era of strategic competition, resilience is no longer optional.

This keynote conversation brings together geopolitical insight, national security strategy, and industrial execution to examine how we can secure the technologies that power autonomy and what industry leaders must do now to reduce risk, accelerate domestic capacity, and build durable advantage.

Airspace Under Pressure: Scaling Counter-UAS for Real-World Security Environments

Drone threats are evolving rapidly and so are the systems designed to counter them. The challenge now is keeping pace at scale.

This panel brings together senior national and homeland security leaders in government and industry expertise to examine how policy, procurement, operations, and proven technology are aligning to move counter-UAS from capability to coordinated, real-world deployment. This group will focus on what it takes to integrate layered defenses, operate across jurisdictions, and deliver trusted, capable, and affordable solutions as demand accelerates.