Skip to main content

Drones, VR, and brisket collide (peacefully) at Digital Trends’ TechPop Drone Show

As hundreds of thousands of pilots can attest, flying a remote-controlled drone is an absolute blast. For 20 fleeting minutes, you get to glide through your city capturing views hitherto reserved for birds and Superman. But unless you’ve paid hundreds of dollars for one, or get to review them like us, you may not have had the privilege of trying one.

We’re trying to change that!

Digital Trends just launched a pop-up event series dubbed TechPop in its hometown of Portland, Oregon. Every month, we’re opening our gadget toy box and putting cutting-edge tech into the hands of our readers, granting them time with the kind of gadgets you usually get to … well, read about on Digital Trends. It also gives DT writers and reviewers a chance to connect with avid readers over a couple beers. Digital Trends is all about helping people discover tech they’ll fall in love with, and finding new ways to enjoy the tech they already own.

After two smaller TechPop events this past summer, Digital Trends opened the floodgates for its third event, dubbed the Drone Show, with an entire outdoor rooftop reserved for all things tech, including specific focuses on drones and virtual reality. It wouldn’t be a party without grub and tunes, so we recruited Koi Fusion and Slick’s Big Time BBQ for food, and Case of Bass brought the jams. Two professional drone companies, Hooperfly and Aerial Technology International, helped us with the aerial show.

And let’s not forget VR. Anyone more interested in escaping reality than flying above it could step inside our double-wide canopy housing HTC’s Vive and try out the hottest VR hardware out there.

Four hundred fans packed the rooftop of Hotel deLuxe’s parking garage, making the Drone Show our biggest TechPop yet. With gorgeous views of Portland’s downtown in plain sight, as well as a front-row seat to a color-filled sunset, TechPop was a harmonious blend of curious tech fanatics, smokey brisket, and high-flying drones.

IMG_9973
Dan Baker/Digital Trends
Dan Baker/Digital Trends

And we’re only getting started. Digital Trends is planning on hosting a family-friendly event, giving kids a chance to mess around with futuristic stuff, just around the corner. We also want to connect with local tech enthusiast groups, makers, tech companies, and small businesses in terms of potential partnerships and collaborations. Stay tuned or learn more at TechPop.com!

Editors' Recommendations

Digital Trends Staff
Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…
Hungry Virginia Tech students will soon be able to order drone-delivered Chipotle burritos
chipotle alphabet drone delivery virginia tech

Google parent company Alphabet is looking to test out some of its drone technologies, and is turning to Chipotle to do it. The company will test out drone-based home delivery of the semi-fast food chain's meals to the 30,000-plus students on Virginia Tech's Blacksburg campus.

Over a period of several weeks, the Project Wing division of Alphabet will offer delivery from Chipotle's on-campus food truck to wherever the ordering student is, presumably through the use of an app. When it finds the student who has ordered the burrito, the food will be lowered using a winch.

Read more
Digital Trends Top Tech of IFA 2016 Award Winners
top tech of ifa 2016 award winners awards feature

Dozens of tech press conferences and product announcements fill our days, but often, the largest and most important among them orbit the biggest shows of the year. CES kicks off the year in January, Mobile World Congress sets the pace for spring, Computex sets the agenda in the summer, and IFA has become the big show to watch each Labor Day weekend. And this year it's bigger than ever.

To cover IFA 2016, Digital Trends sent its biggest crew to date. Nine of our best editors, video producers, and writers have been scouring the show floor in Berlin this week to bring you the latest major tech from companies like Samsung, Lenovo, Huawei, LG, Sharp, Philips, ZTE, and many more. We've seen it all and had a blast writing, tweeting, and covering the show live on Facebook for you all.

Read more
Cyber war: British army goes high-tech with futuristic drones and VR headsets
british military laser guns vr britishsolider

The British military is looking to embrace future technologies with open arms, as it's planning to invest some 800 million pounds ($1.03 billion) in speculative technologies including insect-sized drones, laser firearms, and virtual reality goggles. Students and industry participants will be allowed to pitch their ideas to the new Innovation and Research Insights Unit (IRIS) which will be responsible for doling out the development fund.

The idea with this new division appears to be to experiment and take more risks with what sort of technology the military approves for testing and ultimately usage.

Read more