How did drones bring OK Go to the 9:30 Club, playing a concert on Wednesday for DC's legal and tech types?
The alternative rock band filmed its last music video in Japan using a camera on a drone. That came to the attention of Akin Gump's Michael Drobac, executive director of the Small UAV Coalition. (We snapped Michael, right, at the concert with Aerialtronics Europe CEO Jeremy Wigmore.) To change the perception of UAVs--from a tech used for aerospace and defense, to "something that people love and makes sense to us"--Michael thought, what better way than through music?
We also spotted Google Project Wing head Dr. Davis Vos, right, who came out of a two-year retirement to head the autonomous aerial robotics group. He's above with Google Public Policy's Alex Kozak. As confetti cannons exploded onstage (OK Go has said that it drops 150 pounds of confetti per show), the band played Writing on the Wall and songs from its new album, and joked about the future of the music industry being in concerts for the Small UAV Coalition. Google X and Akin Gump were among the sponsors of the concert, which raised more than $35k for the Know Before You Fly campaign for safe drone use.
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