Speaking at a drone conference? Everything you need to know
How do you get invited to speak at a drone conference? Can you expect to get paid, and if so — how much?
Speaking at conferences can certainly be beneficial, but it requires time and effort. There is money to be made at drone conferences, but attendance also means losing out on the opportunity cost of time spent working at home, as well as travel costs to get there. So before you dive in to the drone conference life, hear from an expert. Enter: Fiona Lake.
Fiona Lake, an Australian-based drone photographer, agricultural expert and industry leader spoke with The Drone Girl about all things drone conferences. A professional photographer, Lake has specialized in agriculture for more than thirty years, and her rural advocacy business has morphed into somewhat of a multi-faceted beast.
Her expertise has since been divided into a 4-part series, but every part is worth a read.
Here’s each individual URL to each part of the series:

- Part 1: How to get booked to speak at drone conferences for the first time
- Part 2: How to give the best drone conference presentation
- Part 3: How to get paid to speak at drone conferences
- Part 4: Speaking at virtual drone conferences vs. in-person ones
The series is a 4-part Q&A between Lake and Sally French, The Drone Girl, who has also spoken at dozens of conferences including South by Southwest (SXSW), Harvard Business School and Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ “Engineering + Entrepreneurship Making Robotics Fly” event, and has led multiple seminars at conferences including InterDrone and the Commercial UAV Expo. Sally was also named one of Fortune Magazine’s “4 top women shaping the drone industry.”
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