DGI In The News
* * * PRESS RELEASE * * *
Record Number Of Participants Attend Europe’s Biggest Geospatial Intelligence Conference In London
Over 600 participants attended the DGI 2008 conference at the QEII Centre in London between the 21st and 24th of January this year, up more than 50% on last year’s attendance of just under 400.
DGI 2008 brought together GIS, Remote Sensing, Operations, and Imagery and Analysis leaders in a forum designed to facilitate discussion and debate on the development of geospatial intelligence capabilities across the globe. Addressing the use of geospatial information in scenarios such as international conflicts, humanitarian disasters, crime, security, border control, arms treaty monitoring and global climate change, the event focused on how to build the necessary infrastructure and architecture to take advantage of geospatial intelligence capabilities, as well tackle the challenges of interoperability so that organisations can collaborate effectively with each other.
Vanessa Lawrence, Director General & Chief Executive of the Ordnance Survey, was one of the Keynote Speakers on the morning of the 22nd of January and talked about the ever-growing role of geographic information in underpinning today’s decision-making for over £100 billion of business in the UK alone. She highlighted the recent severe flooding as an example of how geographic Information has become one of the key elements to aid with contingency planning. After the event, she commented: “the quality and seniority of the speakers is first-class – a thought-provokingand stimulating event to attend.”
Two defence-led case studies that were presented covered the use of geospatial intelligence in Afghanistan and Eastern Chad. Capt. Dave Campey of the 2IC 14 Geo Squadron at the UK Ministry of Defence detailed the geographic support being delivered in the Helmland Province of Afghanistan as part of Operation Herrick. He commented after the event: “the diverse range of geospatial solutions across the defence and government spectrum is awe-inspiring, and the networking opportunities with GIS experts from across Europe and beyond priceless.”
Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Richard Nicklin, National Military Expert (Geospatial) at the EU Military Staff headquarters in Brussels, gave a comprehensive review of the preparations for the humanitarian mission to Eastern Chad and explained what they were hoping geospatial intelligence would achieve in the region. He commented: "the selection of case studies is perfect and delivers a valuable review of the critical geo-information challenges we all face."
Two non-defence scenarios that were highlighted were the use of geospatial information by the UK Home Office and Police Force in Finland to help meet their objectives. Steve Erskine from the former organisation presented recent success stories in offender management, crime reduction and immigration using geospatial capabilities, whereas Pekka Nurhonen from the latter organisation explained how crime incident response times had been reduced over the past 12 months using real-time geospatial information technologies.
Steve Erskine commented: “the mix of defence and government agency case studies is excellent and provides a comprehensive and fully rounded review of the critical geospatial issues we face,” whilst Pekka Nurhonen gave a similar review of the event: "the speaker line-up is so impressive it's nearly impossible to decide which parallel stream to attend - I wish I'd brought a colleague along with me."
BREAKING NEWS: DigitalGlobe have just announced they will take the Lead Sponsorship role at DGI 2009. Jill Smith, President and CEO of the company, chaired the opening sessions at DGI 2008.
The dates for DGI 2009 are already confirmed as the 19th-23rd January 2009, once again at the QEII Conference Centre in London. Early-bird discounts are available for a very limited time only. For more information please visit our website on www.dgieurope.com.
EuroGraphics Newsletter
DGI2008 (the fourth Annual European Geospatial Intelligence Conference) has successful taken place in London involving some 650 participants. The focus of the conference was satellite imageries and the use of image recognition and analysis. Two of our members gave presentations: in the opening session Vanessa Lawrence, Ordnance Survey presented Geographic Information: Underpinning Today’s Decision Making and Marlene Meyer, KMS, Denmark presented Experiences From The 2007 National Emergency Management Exercises In Denmark: How A Web Geo Portal Is Delivering A Common Operational Picture. EuroGeographics had a small exhibition where we have the opportunity to introduce our selves and what we are standing for.
DGI Europe conference report from GIS Professional - Click Here
GeoInformatics Newsletter - Click Here