Drones, GIS and AI for DRM Conferences

Background

How This Collaboration Emerged

This collaboration space was born in South Africa in 2022 as national convening organized by South Africa Flying Labs. It has since grown into the most relevant and growing regional gathering in Southern Africa for drones, GIS and AI for disaster risk management.

Conference & Workshop Co-Organizers

Collaboration Goals, Value & Outcomes

Audience & Goals

The key goal is to bring together local, sub-national, national and regional key stakeholders who already leverage - or would like to leverage - geospatial data for their disaster risk management practice: government officials, civil society, private sector and academia. Through annual conference editions, attendants build relationships and an ecosystem they can tap into at any time.

Value the Conferences & Workshops Provide

The conference and workshop editions are an antidote to tech hype, as they ground drone, data and AI technologies for disaster risk management into practice. Each edition's 2-day conference program is catered to share relevant and timely use cases, learnings and open, trusted discussions on what works, what doesn't, where challenges are holding back progress, and what solutions have been tried to overcome challenges. Followed by a 1-day hands-on workshop where participants can choose between drone demos and a GIS/data training.

Conference & Workshop Outcomes

Through the trusted spaces curated by these regional annual gatherings:

• New collaborations are initiated and implemented
• Barriers between government officials, civil society and the private sector are lowered
• Ideas and learnings are replicated
• Relation- and partnerships grow

What’s next

After 4 successful editions in South Africa, the conference travelled across the Atlantic ocean in 2026, for a first Caribbean/Central America edition held in May 2026. 

Next up: the 5th Southern African edition in South Africa in November.