And there it was again, the treat of the year: Intergeo, the biggest and one of the most significant annual events in the calendar for our business, showing all the latest technologies and innovations. Although this was only my second, I sensed a changing Intergeo. Known traditionally as an event for the survey professionals, Intergeo is moving towards becoming more geospatial. And to have seen this year's show was to understand the future implications here: more modern technology (robotics, sensors), more modern software and GIS processing (3D visualisation) and more data standards.

Intergeo is also maturing from a forum for surveyors into more of a data managers' forum. After fifteen years' orientation around data capture and collection, it is now evolving gradually beyond pure surveying towards a focus on what becomes of the data, resulting in higher-value processing and value-added products. Manufacturers are embedding products with intelligence, great for people like me who are less interested in raw data and technical details, and far more in its results and utilisation. What we're seeing in fact is a drift towards simplicity.

It goes without saying that this issue contains a review of Intergeo 2009. The same drift towards simplicity can be seen in the scanning industry on which our report focuses. Terrestrial laser scanning is showing an increase in systems combining cameras and lasers. And in the mobile laser-scanning industry, last year's cars mounted with a tailor-made configuration of instruments have been supplanted by the first ready-to-use systems for - very clever move - the roof rack!

And what sort of simplification might we expect in aerial laser scanning? Any inventions such as ready-to-use systems or other combination and integration of equipment to further improve measuring? According to Intergraph, the company is considering combining a photogrammetric camera system with high-quality Lidar. Wouldn't such fusion of sensors be great? Just one platform needed for sharable components and, more importantly, only one flight for data acquisition. Plus another consideration: less trouble comparing datasets, since they would be collected at the same time, under the same weather conditions. It's already within the realms of technological possibility. But are you, and thus the market, ready for it? Let me know through the poll on our website.

So with Intergeo behind us again, I'm already looking forward to the next. And like last year, next year I hope to visit even more stands than I could this. Back in the here and now, this months issue focuses on geomatics education, as highlighted by our interview discussing GIS education and the feature article on survey education.