AGI GeoCommunity 08 set to smash previous records

22 August 2008, 6:28am

With less than one month until The Association for Geographic Information (AGI) 2008 Annual Conference the organisers are thrilled by the success already experienced. Exhibition space is fully sold out, with support from organisation such as Autodesk, ESRI (UK), Ordnance Survey and Microsoft, and conference bookings are currently up 17% on last year with some delegate packages already sold out. AGI GeoCommunity ’08 has also attracted support from Oracle, NAVTEQ and Trimble through sponsorship of the newly introduced ‘Icebreaker’ social event and a new delegate prize draw.

The event, which will take place from the 23rd to 25th of September 2008 at the Holiday Inn, Stratford upon Avon, has been the flagship event of the UK geographic information industry for more than ten years, attracting practitioners, academics and policy makers with a world-class conference programme, showcase exhibition and networking opportunities.

“The support we have received so far as been excellent,” said Chris Holcroft, Director and CEO of the AGI. “The industry enthusiastically welcomed the new residential format we introduced last year and this year sponsor organisations are nearly 20% up on last year. Combined with a bigger and more extensive conference programme, additional hands on training opportunities and even more social and networking events this has helped to attract record delegate bookings, despite a time of economic uncertainty.”

This year’s conference theme ‘Shaping a Changing World’, has been designed to address topical issues, such as such as climate change, Digital Cities, Open Source, mobile technology, 3D visualisations, legislative and policy drivers, business models and ROI, all of which are grounded in or central to the use of geographic information. The 2008 conference programme includes five distinct streams, one more than last year, and will include keynote presentations from Sean Phelan, Founder of Multimap, Vanessa Lawrence, Director General of the Ordnance Survey, Charlie Pattinson, Head of Information Management of the Environment Agency, Charles Kennelly, CTO of ESRI (UK), Stuart Haynes, Director of the Defence Geographic Centre and Doug Eberhard, Senior Director, Autodesk.

The conference programme will also include senior representatives from organisations such as the Office for National Statistics, University College London, The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), HM Land Registry, Halcrow, Atkins and the British Geological Survey with papers ranging from ‘Before and After; Understanding the Local Impact of 2012’ to ‘Tackling Climate Change – Local Planning for a Global Crisis’ and ‘Mapping Health Information’ to ‘Public Access to Crime Information’.

In addition to the exciting conference programme AGI GeoCommunity ’08 will also offer a wide range of training opportunities. New for 2008 is series of technical workshops led by Kingston University that will complement the previously successful ‘hands-on’ training workshops, led by Training 4 GIS, and the exhibition floor.

Event contact: Chris Holcroft, +44 (0)207 7036 0430 or chris.Holcroft@agi.org.uk

The Marketing Edge