
14 May 2008, 8:44am
The Association for Geographic Information (AGI) has announced that sponsorship opportunities for their 2008 Annual Conference are virtually sold out. With 20 companies already supporting the event, including Microsoft, ESRI and Ordnance Survey, less than a handful of sponsorship opportunities remain. 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 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.
“We are enormously pleased with the support we have already received from the GI community,” said Chris Holcroft, Director and CEO of the AGI. “Not only from commercial organisations that have responded so positively to the sponsorship opportunities on offer but also with the feedback to the call for conference papers.” He continued, “We received approximately double the numbers of papers required and with topics supplied such as ‘If we have Google do we need the OGC?’, ‘Tackling climate change; local planning for a global crisis’ and ‘Before and After: Understanding the local impact of 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games on the London’ the conference team will have a enjoyable, yet challenging, time making their selection and putting together this years conference programme.”
GeoCommunity ’08: Shaping a Changing World, (www.agi2008.com) has already attracted support from high profile speakers including Sean Phelan, founder of MultiMap one of the world’s leading providers of online mapping and location based services which was acquired in 2007 by Microsoft and Charles Kennelly, Chief Technology Officer for ESRI (UK).
“The combination of world class keynote presentations, the promise of a topical yet stimulating conference programme and a showcase of the best technology and services available combined with hands on workshops, lively debate and networking opportunities has already attracted above target delegate bookings for this stage of our preparations,” said Holcroft. “By taking our Early-Bird rates delegates can ensure onsite accommodation and achieve savings of up to 30% on published delegate fees. However, these places are limited in number so we are encouraging prompt action to prevent disappointment.”
The Association for Geographic Information (AGI) is a not for profit organisation that exists to represent the interests of the UK's geographic information (GI) industry; a wide-ranging group of public and private sector organisations, suppliers of GI software, hardware, data and services, consultants, academics and interested individuals. The AGI, by way of its unique membership forum, brings together this previously disparate GI community to share ideas on best practice, experience and innovation, and offers access to unparalleled networking opportunities with significant business benefits.
Contact: Chris Holcroft, +44 (0)207 7036 0430 or chris.Holcroft@agi.org.uk

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