LOS ANGELES >> Protestors briefly disrupted the opening of a Los Angeles consumer and commercial drone expo Saturday with chants blaming a speaker for predator drone deaths in Pakistan.

The demonstration cut into a keynote speech by Austin Blue, president of Spectrum Aeronautical. Blue’s family owns General Atomics, a producer of the unmanned predator aircraft.

“Austin Blue, shame on you, how many deaths were caused by you?” the group chanted before being escorted out of the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena by security. A second group outside the venue blamed drones for 3,000 deaths in Pakistan and warned that the LAPD obtained two recently.

“This is just a way to commercialize it,” said Aloni Bonilla of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition.

The protests and disruption did little to wane enthusiasm for the Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle Systems Association’s inaugural Drone Expo at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The expo catered to hobbyists, vendors, professional drone pilots and businesses interested in or already using drones with new product unveils and panels about the future of the industry.

Blue said the protestors – who were led away by security – had a right to speak out, just as people have a right to pilot drones. That kind of perception is what the drone industry has to overcome as it becomes more mainstream, but Blue said he is already seeing a shift.

“The applications that are going to increasing come to the forefront are the peaceful, economically helpful ones,” he said. Drones can help farmers plant crops efficiently, film studios capture beautiful aerial footage and activists monitor endangered wildlife, he said.

As those positive applications become more common place, the negative perception will change, he said.

Advocates once tried to steer the industry of remote controlled unmanned vehicles away from the word “drone”, but now the they embrace it. A drone is any unmanned robotic device on land, air or sea, but many associate the term with both remote-control flying toys and military spy planes.

Like the first commercial aircrafts, Blue said drones will eventually move past their military background.

“Nobody here is even remotely interested in using them as weapons,” Blue said.

Keith Kaplan, CEO of the Tesla Foundation and a founder of the UAVSA, said the Drone Expo started first as a small hotel-sized conference, but grew dramatically as the industry took off. The UAVSA advocates for fair regulations for both individuals and companies.

“This is the precipice of robotics enhancing our day to day life,” Kaplan said, who added that while the technology seems intimidating, people will become more comfortable with it, like cell phones and commercial flights. The expo included speakers from both the academic and commercial side of the industry, with topics covering everything from public policy, to drones in the movies and the future of the artificial intelligence behind drone flight systems.

Economist Tom Marcesello said drones will become a multi-billion, or even trillion dollar, industry in the next 10 years. By 2020, he expects the amount of people providing drone services will grow dramatically as companies find they can use the technology to cut costs and accomplish dangerous tasks more safely. He said agriculture and industrial inspections will see the biggest boom, with filmmaking following close behind.

“There is a lot of money to be made here,” he said.

Dave “Captain Dave” Anderson, who captains a whale watching boat out of Dana Point, has already seen huge success. An aerial video of whales and dolphins he shot with a consumer drone got more than 10 million views on Youtube.

“It’s one of the only ways you can be in two places at a time,” said Anderson, who receives a feed of his drone’s video on a pair of goggles. Anderson’s viral video came from a drone launched from a boat out to sea. It provides amazing aerial shots of whales and dolphins as they swim near Dana Point.

Anderson, who works to protect whales, said videos like his help show the industry in a different light.

“If we’re going to change the public’s perception, we have to show them the positive uses of drones,” he said.

Part of the problem with drones is that they exist in a grey area. The Federal Aviation Administration has yet to draft rules for the use of drones and some say it might not finalize regulations until 2017. In the United States, commercial drone use is forbidden until such regulations are completed. The FAA has granted less than a dozen exemptions to this rule, primarily to film companies. The FAA’s first proposals for regulation could come as early as January.