Commercial UAV Expo is launching a two-day Program Management Course and hosting the 2026 DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety Summit in Las Vegas on September 1–3, drawing on lessons from the FIFA World Cup airspace security response. The FBI seized more than 600 drones from restricted airspace across 11 U.S. host cities during the tournament, and federal officials are using that experience to prepare for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, funded by a $250 million（約400億円） FEMA counter-UAS grant.
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Commercial UAV Expo announced a new two-day DRONERESPONDERS Program Management Course and the full 2026 DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety Summit agenda, both held September 1–3, 2026 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. The Summit will feature sessions on airspace security lessons from the FIFA World Cup, where the FBI seized more than 600 drones from restricted airspace across 11 U.S. host cities and federal agencies detected more than 1,000 drones near venues.
Why it matters
The World Cup response is serving as a real-world stress test for U.S. public safety airspace management, and federal officials have said the effort is laying groundwork for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, funded in part by a $250 million（約400億円） FEMA counter-UAS grant to host states. The Program Management Course addresses a structural gap: many public safety UAS programs plateau because leaders lack a playbook for scaling from foundation to full operational maturity.
What to watch
The Summit spans two days with sessions for law enforcement, fire, EMS, search and rescue, emergency management and transportation agencies, covering topics from drone-as-first-responder scaling and BVLOS operations to AI-enabled workflows and Advanced Air Mobility integration. The Program Management Course provides a certificate of completion and covers regulatory considerations, safety management systems, interagency collaboration, and emerging technologies.
The FIFA World Cup counter-UAS response has become a catalyst for formalizing public safety drone operations across the United States. The FBI's seizure of more than 600 drones and detection of more than 1,000 operating near venues represents the scale of the airspace management challenge at a major sporting event. Federal officials have explicitly stated that this operational experience is laying the groundwork for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which underscores how a single event's security lessons are being systematized for future large-scale gatherings.
The new Program Management Course responds to a documented structural problem: public safety agencies often acquire drone capabilities without the organizational framework to sustain and scale them. By providing a two-day curriculum covering regulatory frameworks, safety systems, interagency collaboration, and emerging technologies, the course attempts to move agencies beyond the "handed a mission without a playbook" stage that deputy director Jason Day identified as a common failure mode. The Summit's inclusion of sessions from FDNY, Phoenix Fire Department, CAL FIRE, Metro Fire, and Texas DOT suggests that this knowledge transfer is being treated as an operational priority across multiple jurisdictions and disciplines.
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