Industry

Trimble Dimensions 2010

Trimble’s 5th International User Conference – Trimble Dimensions 2010 – was held with the theme ‘Converge, Connect and Collaborate’. From November 8 to 10 over 2900 attendees from 67 countries gathered at the Mirage, Las Vegas, USA for the conference.

Keynote speakers included Steve Berglund, Trimble President and CEO; Keith Ferrazzi Founder and CEO of the consulting, training, and research firm Ferrazzi Greenlight; and Dr. Steve Squyres Principal Investigator, Mars Exploration Rover Project.

“We are extremely pleased with the continued and strong interest demonstrated in Trimble Dimensions,” said Bryn Fosburgh, Trimble vice president. “It is truly a unique conference focused on how advanced technology solutions are transforming the way work is done.”

With more than 400 sessions the conference explored the use of technology in a wide range of applications including surveying, engineering, construction, mapping, GIS, geospatial, utilities and mobile resource management.

Clear growth signals from the Intergeo 2010

Dr. Hartmut Rosengarten gave a concise summary of the three days of INTERGEO in Cologne: Whereas the focus in 2009 was on “Geo is in”, the talk among industry representatives this year was of “Geo is interconnecting”. The Chairman of the INTERGEO Exhibitor Advisory Board also emphasized that geodata is a key element in today’s IT infrastructures, making INTERGEO the central hub for recording, gathering, processing, distributing and supplying geoinformation.

“We were able to make excellent use of the three INTERGEO days to provide information on career paths and training opportunities in our sector and target potential employees directly,” said Prof. Karl-Friedrich Thöne, President of the event’s patron, DVW (German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management). He added: “Together we are stronger and better able to achieve our goals. INTERGEO sent out a clear signal for international industry networking within the framework of a geo community. This was highlighted in particular by the key conference topic “The environment and geo information”. With their first-class presentation at the joint stand, the organizations in the geo sector successfully promoted the idea of joining forces rather than everyone going their separate ways.”

With over 17,500 visitors, almost 1,500 conference participants and an increase in exhibitor numbers and exhibition space, INTERGEO continued its growth trajectory, thus confirming its position as a leading international conference and trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management in Cologne. More than 500 exhibitors from 32 countries – with more than 30 percent coming from outside Germany – presented themselves and their innovations to a fascinated audience. The fair set a new record for international participation, with 25 percent of visitors coming from abroad. “No other non-company conference in our industry records such a high percentage,” explains Dr. Rosengarten, adding: “Business is better than was predicted a year ago. We expect clear project growth in services and technology in 2011.”

The exhibitor survey reflected the upbeat mood of the three-day event at the Exhibition Centre in Cologne. Almost 90 percent of exhibitors said that they met their goals for INTERGEO participation. These included “establishing new contacts” (approx. 93 percent), “fostering existing contacts” (approx. 85 percent), “showcasing innovations” (approx. 70 percent) and “image cultivation” (approx. 70 percent). Over three-quarters of the exhibitors expect to do good post-trade fair business on the basis of serious enquiries made at the event. While the results of this year’s survey tended to be cautiously optimistic compared to the statistics from last year’s event in Karlsruhe, opinion on the industry’s current economic situation was clearer across the board. In Cologne, almost 50 percent described the situation as “very favorable” or “favorable”, while around 40 percent still described the outlook as “average”. Results for this question the year before were the other way round.

This is also confirmed by the information gleaned from exhibiting companies. Prof. Gerd Buziek, Head of Marketing at ESRI Deutschland, was delighted with the results, saying: “Once again, INTERGEO this year met our expectations. For example, the visitors’ positive response to our new product ArcGIS for INSPIRE clearly showed that we are on the right track with our software and services. Overall, we were able to see clearly how things stand today in terms of performance with GIS and the potential that can be unlocked, for example, for GIS applications in cloud computing or simple and user-friendly web clients. The discussions we had with visitors from the business and scientific communities and public administration bodies as part of our conference activities were also very valuable”. Petra Wagner, Head of Marketing at Leica Geosystems GmbH Vertrieb, said: “As expected, visitor turnout was once again high at our stand on all three days of the fair and the response to our innovations was very good.” Monika Semmler, Marketing Manager at Pitney Bowes Business Insight, said: “We value INTERGEO first and foremost as a platform for reaching decision-makers from the different specialist areas in the geoinformation industry. In this way, it perfectly complements the other specialist conferences that we attend and our internal events. I would like to thank all the visitors who stopped at our stand – we enjoyed many high-caliber discussions. It is discussions such as these that enable us to develop intelligent and practical solutions.” Dr. Johannes Riegl, CEO of RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems GmbH, said: “INTERGEO is a key event in the business calendar. The opportunity to meet here with our customers and business partners and share information with them has become an established tradition. And naturally we welcome the chance to present our innovations to a wide audience. This year, for example, we showcased the RIEGL VZ-1000 terrestrial 3D laser scanner and the NP680i ‘turnkey’ airborne scanner platform. One of the highlights was our INTERGEO partner dinner to which we invited business partners and friends from over 20 countries.”

The conference in Cologne saw the successful launch of two new features – daily keynote speeches and the INTERGEO Academy. The keynote speeches featured high-profile figures such as Constitutional Court judge Udo Di Fabio, ESRI president Jack Dangermond and FIG president Stig Enemark, while the INTERGEO Academy got off to a flying start with a total of 170 participants. “Geo is interconnecting – and as a facilitator of the industry, INTERGEO will continue to drive forward international dialogue and the networking of disciplines, looking ahead to Nuremberg in 2011,” explained Olaf Freier, Managing Director of HINTE GmbH and INTERGEO organizer.

The 17th INTERGEO will take place from 27 to 29 September 2011 in Nuremberg.

ION GNSS 2010

21-24 September, Portland, USA

The ION Satellite Division’s 23rd annual international meeting was held from the 21st to the 24th of September 2010 at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon, USA.

At the opening plenary session issues related to ‘sustainment, robustness and interchangeability’ of global positioning and timing were taken up by the speakers. The session was moderated by Dr. Bradford Parkinson, the founding commander of the GPS Joint Program Office and a Stanford University professor emeritus. Other panellists included David Turner, deputy director, Office of Space & Advanced Technology, U.S. Department of State; Phil Ward, of Navward GPS Consulting; Dr. Mike Miller, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL); and Dr. Paul Massatt, senior engineering specialist, in The Aerospace Corporation’s Navigation and Geopositioning Systems Department.

Over the three days 260 papers were presented in 36 parallel sessions. More than 60 companies and organizations participated in the accompanying exhibition and there was a four percent increase in attendance from last year.

The Johannes Kepler Award was awarded to Dr. Todd Walter for his contributions to space based augmentation systems and the education of the next generation of navigation professionals.

While Ali Broumandan of the University of Calgary was awarded the Bradford W. Parkinson Award for graduate student excellence in Global Navigation Satellite Systems in his thesis “Enhanced Narrowband Signal Detection and Estimation with a Synthetic Antenna Array for Location Application.”

The GNSS Program Updates panel discussion was moderated by Dr. John Betz of the MITRE Corporation. This panel also had presentation by GPS Wing’s new commander, Col. Bernard Gruber and an update on GLONASS by Dr. Sergey Revnivykh, Deputy Director General of Roscosmos’s Central Research Institute of Machine Building.

The first Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) meeting was also hosted by ION.

The ION GNSS 2011 will be held from the 23rd to the 25th of September 2011 at the Oregon Convention Centre, Portland, Oregon, USA. For more details contact lbeaty@ion.org.