Creating a conference programme

Late last week the AGI GeoCommunity '12 conference committee gathered in Nottingham to create and agree a conference programme. Once more, with more submissions than we could accommodate, the committee needed to find common themes into which the accepted paper abstracts can be fitted.


This year we identified 12 themes for paper groupings and these are as follows:

• Who, What, Where?
• Environmental Impacts
• Emerging Technologies
• Data
• Sharing Best Practice
• Social Geography
• Engagement
• Health Geography
• BIM
• Opening UP
• Cloud Solutions

To see the whole programme go to www.agigeocommunity.com

Latest Sponsor list

Things have been moving forward with sponsors. We're very pleased to list the following:

• Esri UK  Platinum sponsor
• Ordnance Survey Platinum sponsor
• Civica Gold sponsor
• Leica Geosystems  Silver sponsor
• GGP Systems Silver sponsor
• UNIGIS Silver sponsor
• Snowflake Silver sponsor
• Océ UK Silver sponsor
• UKLP Silver sponsor
• Cadcorp Silver sponsor

Sponsorship support helps AGI keep the costs down for delegates and is a vital part of the conference.

Sponsor packages are still available; please contact Claire Huppertz (claire.huppertz@agi.org.uk).

Abstract marking and setting a programme

This year's call for papers has ended and, I'm pleased to report, netted over 90 submitted abstracts. 


This compares with quantities received for past conferences and generally gives us double the number we can accommodate. A very nice problem to have!


All the abstracts have now been collated and distributed around the conference working group for individual scoring. At this point we conduct a 'blind process' insofar as nobody knows who the abstract is authored by or who they represent. This information is edited out before hand.


The conference working group will gather in Nottingham on 24 and 25 May to jointly construct a full programme. This will then be published and promoted very soon afterwards.

Our early sponsors

We may have only just crossed into April, but it is great to be able to tell you about the early support we've had from AGI GeoCommunity '12 sponsors.

And here they are:

Platinum

• Esri UK
• Ordnance Survey

Silver

• Leica Geosystems
• GGP Systems
• UNIGIS
• Snowflake Software
• UK Location Programme

We are very pleased at this level of support and hope all our sponsors have a fantastic event in September.

For more info about sponsorship AND our new Bronze package for small businesses see: http://www.agi.org.uk/sponsor-packages/

Conference Graphic - The Mr Men

With a return to East Midlands Conference Centre I was seeking to maintain some consistency with last year's main graphic but also introduce new aspects to emphasise the 'sharing' and 'place' elements.


The very colourful stick-men (the Mr Men) attempt to give a sense of diversity of backgrounds and interests clustering on the site of the conference centre for this year's AGI geo-fest. 


Last year we used imagery and small scale mapping and this year is the same, but from different sources and with a different orientation.


Chris Holcroft

We want you to present

How can AGI GeoCommunity '12 be as good as it could be if we don't have your paper and you presenting (fawn)?


The AGI Call for Papers is out along with ideas for submission. All we need we need from you is a short abstract and your details for consideration. All is completed on-line and you can get all the details here:


http://www.agi.org.uk/call-for-papers-2012 


Go on, you know you want to really...

Who's involved in this year's committee

Each year AGI GeoCommunity is organised by a committee (or working group) which works closely with the AGI staff. The conference really is an event created by members of the geocommunity for their peers.

I'm pleased to say that once again we have a great mix of people involved from a diverse range of backgrounds. These are:

• Jermiane Hutchinson - Environment Agency
• Simon Agass - Welsh Assembly Government
• Nick Austin - LOCOG
• Will White - Esri UK
• Peter Yard - Pitney Bowes Business Insight
• Mark Percival - Individual member
• Jeremy Morley - University of Nottingham
• Andrew Newman - Defra
• Emma Bee - BGS 

It is Jeremy Morley's second year as conference chair, the lucky chap!