The planning and organisation of this event is going well. True, there have been pandemics and war clouds over the horizon to make some potential visitors nervous about attending, but so far that has merely left them deferring final travel decisions to a later time than normal. The event opens with flight observer training sessions, being held in a nearby hotel on 6 June as the exhibition and main conference are being put together.  

The conference programme addresses topics such as mobile phones being used to find survivors under snow drifts, appropriate with the event backdrop being Austria. Of course snow is not required for this type of technology, it can find people pretty much everywhere as has been poignantly demonstrated recently in Ukraine. 

There will be an air demonstration by the Austrian Police and live outside demonstrations of loudspeakers. Plus, items on CRM, back seat crew training, flight safety, accident survival, ice rescue, and how to design your future police aircraft. Locally-based Airborne Technologies and Diamond will also be expected to display more than six full-size aircraft at the event, with other exhibitors showing unmanned craft.

Currently, attendees will be coming from across Europe and the USA, and hopefully, the coming weeks will see more distant travellers re-assess travel possibilities blighted by the pandemic. The exhibition area is filling well, with well over half of the current target of 40 exhibitors already in place with new inquiries are being sent in daily. The exhibitor's display space is filling up and some may well be obliged to attend without the option to have displays.

The event is free to all airborne emergency services fliers – subject to pre-booking this month. The event funding comes from the exhibitors and event sponsors including generous support from two leading Italian companies FlySight and Leonardo. The basic package is £1,300 for an exhibitor space or £350 for individual conference/exhibitor attendees.

Details of the event are online at www.pavconeurope.eu