BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Bentonville held a community day to start the UP.Summit conference, bringing together some of the most advanced technology in the world on Sept. 29.
"UP.Summit is an opportunity to bring together the leaders that are changing the way we move people and goods — land, air, sea, space — from electric cars to electric airplanes to SpaceX with space with AI defense," UP.Summit mission commander Cyrus Sigari said. "All the leaders in that space, all convening here in Northwest Arkansas for an entire week's worth of meetings and presentations and this incredible community day."
At the show, they had hundreds of planes, helicopters, Cybertrucks, air scooters, and more.
"Guests that came to the UP.Summit saw a tremendous amount of technology, from delivery drones, Google Wing, [and] Zipline to SpaceX Dragon capsule that flew into space to 20 Cybertrucks racing down the runway beating Lamborghinis to flying cars," Sigari said. "You name it. Just about anything and everything you can imagine about the future is all happening here in Bentonville."
They could've chosen anywhere in the world to have this conference, so why Bentonville?
"Why not Bentonville?" Sigari said. "There's no better place in the world to get together. Meet in the middle of the country. Bring these leaders together. The state of Arkansas collectively moves more things than the other states in the nation, between Walmart, JB, Hunt, Tyson ... mobility is really core to the state. And so we bring all these leaders together from around the world to show their technology, to share with the world, and to connect with one another."
This event isn't specific to Arkansas — it's worldwide.
"People come in from around the world to come to see this event," Sigari said. "It's so inspiring to see how excited they are, how much fun they're having, get a chance to experience Northwest Arkansas for the first time, connect with the region, and also connect with the toys."
Bentonville Mayor Stephanie Orman said it's so important for the city of Bentonville to be able to showcase this big event.
"It's exciting to see the community really rally around and have access to all these different technologies in aviation," Orman said.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.