Drone Nerds is bringing its ElevateUAV Summit back for a fourth year, and this time it lands at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, just north of Miami, on November 17 and 18, 2026. The two-day event is built around live outdoor flight demonstrations, manufacturer sessions, and hands-on evaluation for the public safety, agriculture, construction, and inspection teams who buy enterprise drones for a living.
Registration is open now with general admission, VIP, and group tickets. The exhibitor list so far includes ABZ Innovation, Vantage Robotics, Sentera, Votix, Inspired Flight, and Autel, with speaker and exhibitor slots still available.
The summit debuted in July 2023 at FIU’s Biscayne Bay campus and has grown into the reseller’s flagship event. The venue upgrade is the clearest sign yet that Drone Nerds wants it to compete with the national shows.
ElevateUAV 2026 Puts Live Flight Demos Ahead of Booth Visits
ElevateUAV 2026 is designed so attendees can watch aircraft fly, talk to the manufacturer, and compare platforms in one place before committing budget. Drone Nerds says the format combines outdoor demonstrations, expert-led sessions, workshops, and networking across two full days, rather than splitting them into separate tracks.
That matters more for enterprise buyers than for hobbyists. A public safety agency deciding between a docked drone-as-first-responder platform and a hand-launched thermal quad is not going to settle that on a spec sheet, and the FAA’s DFR waiver list now runs past 1,000 agencies, most of them still early in the buying process.
Cara Ferreira, Chief Marketing Officer at Drone Nerds, said the point is to give attendees “a more practical way to evaluate drone technology” than online research allows.
Gulfstream Park Gives the Summit Room to Fly
For 2026, Drone Nerds moved ElevateUAV to Gulfstream Park, the racetrack and casino complex in Hallandale Beach, Florida. The venue has a dedicated outdoor field for live drone demonstrations plus separate space for the exhibitor hall, keynotes, and breakout sessions, all within walking distance of each other.
The 2025 edition ran October 21 and 22 in the Aventura area, and Drone Nerds selected the larger venue after that event to accommodate more manufacturers and more flying. The company’s parent, XTI Aerospace, announced the 2026 date and venue in an August 20 press release.
Jeremy Schneiderman, CEO of Drone Nerds and interim CEO of XTI, framed the summit as part of “helping organizations evaluate, adopt, and scale drone technology with greater confidence.”
The Exhibitor List Reads Like a Post-DJI Shopping List
The six exhibitors named so far, ABZ Innovation, Vantage Robotics, Sentera, Votix, Inspired Flight, and Autel, are all companies DroneXL has covered as alternatives buyers turn to when DJI hardware is off the table. More brands are expected as sponsorship agreements close ahead of the event.
ABZ Innovation raised €7 million in January on an explicit bet that a DJI ban opens the U.S. agriculture market to European spray drones. Sentera is now a John Deere company. Vantage Robotics builds the Trace nano drone for tactical and public safety use. And Autel, the one Chinese manufacturer on the list, is fighting the FCC over its own Covered List placement while continuing to sell into U.S. police departments.
Drone Nerds itself has been reshaping its catalog in the same direction. The reseller added RigiTech’s Eiger delivery drone in June, and XTI bought the company for $40 million last November as part of a broader wager on what U.S. operators fly after DJI.
Registration and Participation Are Open Now
Tickets for ElevateUAV 2026 are available at elevateuavsummit.com in general admission, VIP, and group rate tiers. Drone Nerds is also accepting speaker submissions from industry professionals and exhibitor and sponsorship applications from companies that want floor space or demo time at Gulfstream Park.
The audience Drone Nerds is targeting is specific: public safety agencies evaluating drones for emergency response, agriculture teams looking at aerial spraying and scouting, construction firms collecting jobsite data, and enterprise teams running inspection, mapping, or asset monitoring programs. Manufacturers, software vendors, and payload developers looking to reach those buyers fit on the other side of the table.
DroneXL’s Take
Trade shows are easy to dismiss. ElevateUAV is worth paying attention to this year for a reason that has little to do with Drone Nerds and everything to do with the calendar.
The FCC’s comment window on PS Docket 26-189, the proposed ban on importing and marketing foreign drones, closes September 2. The Section 232 tariff decision on drones is due September 3. By the time the demo field opens at Gulfstream Park on November 17, the U.S. market will know whether DJI and Autel hardware can still legally enter the country, and every buyer walking that field will be shopping accordingly. Drone Nerds didn’t schedule the event around those dates, but the timing turns a regional reseller summit into one of the first places to see what a post-ban enterprise lineup looks like with the aircraft actually flying.
My read is that the exhibitor list already tells you where Drone Nerds thinks this lands. Five of the six named companies build outside China, and the company spent the last nine months adding RigiTech and getting acquired by a parent whose sister investment, Unusual Machines, is a pure DJI-ban play. That’s a business positioning itself for a ban, whatever the FCC decides.
I’ll concede the obvious counterpoint: a Florida show with six confirmed exhibitors is not Commercial UAV Expo, and Las Vegas in early September will have more aircraft on the floor. But Vegas happens before the FCC and Commerce decisions. Miami happens after. If you’re an operator trying to figure out what to buy in 2027, the show that comes second is the one with better information.
Sources: XTI Aerospace via PR Newswire, Drone Nerds, ElevateUAV Summit
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.
