An entrepreneur who helped usher in the internet revolution will share his insights with attendees at the Day 1 Keynote on Tuesday, 22 October at NBAA-BACE.

Over the past 25 years, Sky Dayton has founded, co-founded and helped build companies that have propelled the internet into our everyday lives. He founded EarthLink in 1994 at the age of 23 after becoming frustrated with how hard it was to connect to the internet. EarthLink eventually grew to serve millions of consumers. Dayton went on to found Boingo Wireless, and co-found and foster the growth of many other private and public companies.

In the 2000s Dayton became captivated by aviation. “Ten years ago,” he says, “a friend took me for a ride in his Eclipse jet and I realised how much I wanted to learn to fly.” He completed his private pilot licence in a Cirrus SR22 in 2011, and over the past eight years he has accumulated almost 2,000 hours of flight time, training to a jet rating along the way. Today he flies a Phenom 300 between his home in Oregon and companies up and down the West Coast.

Dayton is an active investor and board member at several companies using technology to solve some of the world's toughest problems. One of these is Joby Aviation, which is building an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for urban air mobility.

“Over a billion people spend an hour a day in traffic globally, a problem we can solve by unlocking the abundant space above our cities,” Dayton explains. “In the coming years, eVTOL can change everything about how we live and work.”

Dayton served on the board of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School at Harvard University, currently serves on the Parents' Advisory Board at Stanford University, and was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the University of Southern California.

“In addition to being an accomplished aviator, Sky is a visionary entrepreneur and investor,” adds NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “We know he will inspire convention attendees with a compelling vision for the future of urban air mobility and other technologies, in aviation and beyond.”