Under sunny skies and with 1600 registered users in attendance, the annual ESRI EMEA User Conference was held in London, UK last week at the Queen Elizabeth Convention Centre under the theme 'GIS for everyday life'. Richard Waite, president of ESRI (UK) opened the show welcoming guests from across the globe. He said that this gathering was the largest European GIS conference by number in attendance as well as the largest in the country - “GIS is an indespensible part of life.”
INTERGEO 2008 opened under rainy skies in the northern city of Bremen, Germany with the theme ‘Knowledge and action for planet earth’. With 478 exhibitors from 29 countries in attendance, presentations included reference to the changing world, climatic threats and the need for authoritative data to meet these challenges - a theme V1 Magazine has also been promoting over the last year.
The 20th AGI (Association for Geographic Information) Event and 2nd Geocommunity Conference 2008 was held this past week at Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK to an audience of 600 under the theme ‘Shaping a Changing World’. The evening prior to the event featured a pre-conference icebreaker which included the Earl of Oxford's Men, a Shakespearean entertainment group who performed the Henry V Battle of Agincourt in full attire and with an abundance of fun and laughter. Steven Feldman once again acted as Conference Chair, putting together a program that included a wide ranging and diverse number presentations traversing the GI community within the UK. Major sponsors of the event this year included Autodesk, ESRI(UK) and Ordnance Survey.
The 2008 ESRI International User Conference took place in San Diego, Calif., from August 4-8. This ever-growing event attracted close to 15,000 people this year, with the theme, "GIS: Geography in Action". Sustainability was a strong theme in the plenary session as well as throughout the conference program.
The 2008 GeoWeb Conference took place in Vancouver, BC, Canada from July 21-25. This growing event attracts an international audience of developers and technical managers with its strong focus on the underpinnings of the GeoWeb that has continued on from its start as GML Days.
AGIT / GI Forum 2008 is a major international symposia and exhibit held yearly in Austria at the University of Salzburg. It not only offers a successful dual Deutsche-English language format, but it manages to combine industry, government and education authorities into one action packed, three day program together with an exhibition. New technologies and applications emerging from central and south eastern Europe are in abundance at the conference and a vibrant poster competition takes place.
The annual Association for Geographic Information (AGI - UK) Conference will take place during September 2008. V1 Magazine interviewed Conference Chairman, Steven Feldman prior to the event to gain an understanding about this year's event and what the GI community can expect from the event.
The 2008 Intergraph 2008 International Users' Conference took place in Las Vegas, Nevada from June 2-5. More than 2,600 attendees gathered from more than 60 countries, making the event one of the largest ever. The theme of the event was "Experience the Power," with strong connections to Intergraph's power business, but also a connection to the resurgence of the company after extensive restructuring.
The 2008 Bentley Empowered (BE) Conference took place from May 28-30, in Baltimore, Maryland. The event drew roughly 2,000 registrants from 50 countries from many infrastructure disciplines, including roads, bridges, buildings, communications, water, architects, engineers, contractors and owner/operators. The theme of the event was "Sustaining Infrastructure," and the green theme permeated event preparations and is becoming a corporate mantra for the organization. Bentley has committed to reduce their carbon footprint by 15% before 2009. They've also adopted a less travel-intensive schedule for their own staff as well as offering deep online training options to reduce the travel of their users.
| Tue May 21 UK - Esri UK |
| Tue May 21 USA - Space Tech Conference |
| Wed May 22 USA - FOSS4G North America |
| Thu May 23 Czech Republic - 14th European Forum on Eco-innovation |
| Thu May 23 USA - FOSS4G North America |
| Fri May 24 USA - FOSS4G North America |