Conference Programme Launched for GEO Business 2015

GEO Business 2015, which takes place at the Business Design Centre in London from 27-28 May 2015, has unveiled its conference programme. As the UK’s biggest geospatial event, the conference attracted a high standard of submissions when it issued a call for papers at the end of last year. Over 170 abstracts were received from authors representing 28 countries in total.

Conference chairman Graham Mills (chairman of Technics Group and president of The Survey Association) commented that, with such incredible industry support, the organisation committee is delighted to present a programme which reflects the vibrancy of technology in the geospatial sector. In fact with so much innovation within the industry, the committee felt the need to introduce two new sessions this year, making a total of 16 sessions with a variety of presentations in each.

There will be an informative keynote address opening the show each day including a presentation on day one from Andrew McNaughton, technical director from HS2 (the UK’s proposed new high speed rail line). Day two will open to a presentation about the ‘BIM Toolkit and Digital Plan of Work Project’ by Dr Stephen Hamil, director of design & innovation at NBS (National Building Specification, UK, which is part of RIBA Enterprises and wholly owned by the Royal Institute of British Architects). 

Future

One of the new sessions is for ‘Emerging and Developing Technologies’ and includes topics which focus on the future of geospatial technology. These include a talk about ‘wearable GIS tools’ by Jaak Laineste, founder of Nutiteq; ‘the future of maps’ by Gary Gale, founder of Malstow Geospatial; and the ‘evolution of geospatial technology’ by Lee Braybrooke, marketing manager at Trimble. The other new session, ‘Is your Asset Management Fit for the 21st Century’, looks at how geospatial solutions can be used to support the management of assets in a variety of different situations. 

Highlights of the programme include a thought-provoking talk by Andrew Thompson, director of Savills (UK), about the role of geospatial professionals in the resolution of development neighbor disputes, following an increased parliamentary interest in the subject for new legislation.

BIM

In an enlightening session on ‘Specifications and Standards’, Mr Chris Preston, senior engineer, Network Rail, will be discussing attitudes to risk and risk mitigation, including affordable solutions to control risk associated with geospatial data capture. In the same session, David Andrews, geospatial imaging officer at English Heritage, will be presenting English Heritage’s new edition of ‘Metric Survey for Specifications’ which is due to be released in May. The new version reflects changes in technology, including digital cameras, motion software and unmanned aerial platforms, as well as BIM. This will be of interest to all those in the commercial sector who work on cultural heritage projects. 

With BIM sweeping through businesses, the programme includes two sessions on the subject.  On day one, Tim Wood, global business architect at Arup, will be ‘joining the dots between GIS and BIM’ as he talks about Arup’s role in regenerating Croydon, a city in the UK. Similarly, Fred Mills, founding director of The B1M, will be delivering a topical paper explaining the opportunities and benefits of mass BIM adoption on the second day of the conference.

Geospatial data

Other important talks on the subject of data come from John Carpenter, director of strategy and planning at Ordnance Survey, who will provide insight into how geospatial data has been maintained at Ordnance Survey and how there is a need for new initiatives to extend the reach and impact for the next generation of stakeholders. On a similar subject, Dr Adam Iwaniak, president of the Wroclaw Institute for Spatial Information and Artificial Intelligence, Poland, will present information about a recent project to develop the GeoMedia Semantic Toolkit which is able to create and integrate linked data, making it possible to deliver geospatial knowledge in the Linked Data Web.

Exhibition

With 50 presentations at the conference, the committee has ensured there is something to benefit everyone. In addition, delegates can enjoy an extensive programme of workshops with GEO Business’ exhibitors demonstrating their products and services through a choice of over 140 workshop sessions, and there is also an outside demonstration area. GEO Business’ international exhibition will include over 200 exhibitors from 20 countries.

GEO Business 2015 plays host to a vibrant social programme to maximise possibilities for informal networking, including a gala dinner that was a sell-out at the 2014 show. With so much positive feedback about the launch event, the organisers are expecting a greater turnout of visitors to GEO Business 2015, the organising committee stated.

For full information about GEO Business 2015 at the Business Design Centre in London on 27-28 May 2015, see here.