AGI GeoCommunity Blog

Europa Technologies take a Silver

2011-08-23T16:53:00.000+01:00

Those very nice people at Europa Technologies are our latest conference sponsor. This is their first year as a full sponsor and we are really pleased to have them onboard and hope they will have a great time with us in Nottingham.

Get your AGI GeoCommunity Soapbox pitch in NOW

2011-08-23T16:49:00.000+01:00

Now in its third year, the 'lightning pitch' format used has proven a great start to the informal proceedings of the evening of AGI GeoCommunity conference day 1.

With sponsored geo-beers, a live Twitter feed and sensible to silly 'geo-rants' (as I call them) it's a fab way for speakers and audience to get their points over in a fun way and in 5 minutes tops. Past 'soapbox stars' Ian Painter and Thierry Gregorious are not pitching this year (apparently) and so in true 'Britain's got the X-Factor, search for a star, opportunity knocks' style it could be your chance to be the next AGI soapbox celeb!
Don't hold back now ... you know it makes sense!
For more details see: http://www.agi.org.uk/soapbox/

All good things come to an end

2011-07-27T07:58:00.001+01:00

July 31 is the cut-off for Early Bird bookings for AGI GeoCommunity '11. Fees for the conference are always very attractive, but getting in early is the canny delegates way of saving more. Book now and grab yourself a bargain!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Latest news for the conference

2011-07-25T15:41:00.000+01:00

Our line-up of 5 plenary speakers is complete with the announcement that Kimberly C. Kowal of the British Library is joining us. Kimberly is a digital mapping specialist with international speaking experience. This gives us a diverse and high calibre plenary speaker line-up covering many different bases, from the PSMA to mapping and analysing inequality in modern society.

Here is the full line-up:

Emer Coleman, Director of Digital Projects, Greater London Authority
Sir Ian Magee CB, Chair of the PSMA GI Group
Gary Gale, Director of the Ovi Places Registry, Nokia
Professor Danny Dorling, University of Sheffield
Kimberly C. Kowal, Lead Curator of Digital Mapping, British Library

It's also important to point out that a lot of new sponsors have come on board lately. Our list currently stands at:

Esri UK (Platinum sponsor)
Ordnance Survey (Platinum sponsor)
Oracle (Ice breaker sponsor)
Navteq (Ice breaker sponsor)
Cadcorp (Silver sponsor)
GGP Systems (Silver sponsor)
Leica GeoSystems (Silver sponsor)
Pitney Bowes Business Insight (Silver sponsor)
UNIGIS (Silver sponsor)
Astrium Geo-Information Services (Silver sponsor)
PSMA (Silver sponsor)
STAR-APIC (Icebreaker sponsor)
SciSys (Silver sponsor)
Océ (UK) (Silver sponsor)

Oh! And earlybird ends this Sunday 31 July. You can always wait until afterwards and pay more. Trust me, I won't complain!

Interesting blog item from 'Archaeogeek'

2011-06-06T13:20:00.000+01:00

Jo Cook, scuba-diver, archaeologist, GIS and OpenSource enthusiast, has recently posted this interesting blog piece on the AGI GeoCommunity '11 paper selection process:

http://www.archaeogeek.com/blog/2011/06/03/conference-organisation-for-beginners/

As one of the AGI staff it is always useful to see what perspectives people have of the process we use!

Conference paper selection pictures

2011-06-02T17:27:00.000+01:00

We have a conference programme!

2011-06-02T17:10:00.002+01:00

The call for papers is history and last week the conference committee gathered in Nottingham to assemble the conference programme.

With twice the number of papers than we could accomodate we had plenty of material to choose from but commiserations to send afterwards to those authors whose abstracts didn't make it in.

The programme as it stands at present is here:

Cadcorp takes a Silver

2011-04-15T16:05:00.001+01:00

More sponsor news in the form of Cadcorp - the UK based GIS software house - has now taken a Silver package. Cadcorp's association with the AGI has been a long one and it's great to see them come onboard to support and exhibit at the AGI GeoCommunity conference again this year.

Latest sponsors

2011-03-03T17:32:00.000Z

Very pleased to report that Ordnance Survey join Esri UK as a Platinum Sponsor and that Leica GeoSystems and GGP Systems have just come onboard as Silver Sponsors.

This is terrific news at such an early stage in the proceedings and we look forward to them joining us for another great AGI GeoCommunity conference in September.

Thank you all!

Call for papers is open

2011-02-24T14:56:00.000Z

There is something for everybody looking to submit a paper to our geo event of the year.

Our 7 main themes to get people thinking are:

- The Open Alternative
- Society
- Maximising Value
- Safeguarding our Future
- Clever Communication
- GI on the Move
- Let's apply GI

To see all the details and to submit a paper abstract see: http://www.agi.org.uk/call-for-papers-2011/

Building a conference graphic

2011-02-21T17:39:00.001Z

We have now a conference graphic for 'Placing Ourselves in the New Economy'.

I wanted to crack this early on this year because such subjective elements of the conference can easily drift.

I find the design process is like composing a song. A main theme or component comes up and layers of related items started to build up on it like a layer-cake. Some of these work and some don't. It's a bit of a voyage where the nature of the destination isn't completely known to start with.

I'd started with cogs (as in gearing) as the main components - they interrelated well and motifs could be put within them to create additional meanings. The idea being it could represent placement, interrelationships, processes and activity. Unfortunately I quickly found out that two other 'geo' events were exploiting the cog theme. Although they didn't look like my design, it was back to the drawing board.

The next step was to go for jigsaw pieces. I found them surprising tricky to draw well in comparison to the regular geometry that makes up a gear cog. Once I had produced some acceptable pieces I then decided to turn them into 3D shapes using things like extrusion depths, perspective and several lighting effects.

That said I needed something to 'lay' the jigsaw on. What better than a map? I started with a chunk of OSMM I had lying around and that worked fine. But to get data based on the site of the actual conference venue it was very quick and easy to opt for OSM (thanks Jeremy!) and the latter was certainly colourful enough for the task. The 2D map was then rotated and given the 3D treatment.

Naturally, the colour palette used was based on 'standard' AGI GeoCommunity colours used in previous years. Their has to be some consistency.

Once I had a basic layout with the correct logos, the title, the map and the jigsaw, something was still missing - a good backdrop shot. With that sorted it was time to road-test it on the AGI Team and the conference committee. After some very good feedback we got the final polished version. Something that fits the conference theme and has lots of interpretations therein.

Esri UK take Platinum

2011-02-07T15:56:00.003Z

Industry leader and long time supporter and sponsor of the AGI annual conference, Esri UK, have today taken a Platinum Sponsorship package.

This is great news and an major early show of support. It's great to have Esri UK onboard and we hope they have a great event with us in September.

Online Booking System is open

2011-02-03T17:10:00.000Z

Why switch on the online booking system at such an early stage you may ask? AGI GeoCommunity '11 isn't until September! The programme of content won't be out until June! The title and themes of the conference will not be announced for another couple of weeks! Are we mad!?

Actually we've found for the last 2 or 3 years that switching on early is welcomed by a good number of regular AGI GeoCommunity attenders and it gives them a chance to book early and snaffle up an Early Bird package. Nowt different from booking your holidays if you think about it.

Good value is the aim-of-the-game with our delegate prices. Times are hard and we always strive to keep the price barriers low for entry. This year is no exception with some fantastic rates.

Afterall, the more delegates we get the better the networking and atmosphere and, of course, it keeps our sponsors in good humour.

Here is our price table:

For more info and to book see: http://bit.ly/hMIk0X

Introducing the new AGI GeoCommunity '11 committee

2011-02-01T16:52:00.004Z

Each year the AGI conference logistics are delivered by the AGI staff and the content is driven by a committee of volunteer AGI members who ensure the conference is both topical and 'shaped by members'. This year's conference committee (what we call an 'Action Working Group' in AGI-speak) is a mix of veterans and newcomers. These selfless individuals/willing victims are:

Jeremy Morley, Centre for Geospatial Science - Conference Chair 2011
Emma Bee, British Geological Survey
Lee Braybrooke, Trimble
Jo Cook, Oxford Archaeology
Rollo Home, Independent Geospatial Consultant
Andrew Hudson-Smith, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA)
Andrew Newman, UK Location Programme
Mark Percival, London Borough of Islington
Elizabeth Seaman, Communities and Local Government
Peter Wilkinson, Esri UK
Peter Yard, Pitney Bowes Business Insight

The three AGI staff who work closely with them are:

Claire Huppertz, AGI - Conference Manager
Alan Wilks, AGI - Conference Finance
Chris Holcroft, AGI - Conference Senior Responsible Officer

The group demonstrates a good spread of interests and backgrounds and once again conference goers can be assured of an outstanding team working on their behalf to deliver another fantastic AGI GeoCommunity event.

Testing the online booking system

2011-02-01T16:48:00.005Z

Our online booking system, RegOnline is now set-up for AGI GeoCommunity '11 and is being tested.

AGI has used this booking 'engine' with great success since 2007.

RegOnline is a third-party 'industrial strength' platform and extremely popular for professional events management.

We anticipate opening for bookings in early February.

The show's over - thank you all!

2010-10-05T10:13:00.005+01:00

Nigel Shadbolt at the final plenary.

AGI GeoCommunity '10 closed with a groundswell of positive feedback and happy memories. A diverse and busy programme ran alongside an impressive array of keynote and plenary speakers. Thanks to everyone who supported, helped and attended this great event. You all made AGI GeoCommunity '10 what it was.

Times have been hard this year for most of us, but the conference came through all this as a well attended, well programmed and fine spirited celebration of opportunity. A few self-appointed 'personalities' sought to find a critical slant, bearing in mind their vehicles of expression are not necessarily based on promoting good news, unity, or even being in attendance at the moments they are commenting on.

Simon, this year's event chair, did a great job in his own style and emphasised some key points about AGI's broad engagement across the GI spectrum. Be it academia, government, third sector and commerce. Well done Simon and thank you.

The AGI team, plus our brilliant committee of volunteers, worked tirelessly to run the whole show in a professional fashion. Thanks too to the guys from Kingston Uni and our hands-on session providers. Wearing silly shirts is de rigeur and as in all things, there is a story attached. Claire, our event manager, doesn't want to go there though...

AGI Council members trusted us and let us 'get on with it'. Thank you for you confidence and support.

So, good job all around. Our minds now focus on AGI GeoCommunity '11 and we wish our new conference chair/victim Jeremy Morley all the best as the jamboree moves to Nottingham.

I'll close this years blog with some feedback from our delegates:

“… thinking how much I enjoyed myself over the last 2 days. Once again an excellent informative conference, well done to you and everyone involved.”

“A big ‘Thank you’ to you and all your conference team. We thoroughly enjoyed the event and feel ever more comfortable as part of the ‘GI Community’.”

“Just wanted to drop you both a line to say thanks for a great conference.”

“…thanks to you and the gang for organising a well-run event.”

“…congratulations on another successful conference.”

“I really believe it was a great conference, I took a step back to listen to the talks and see what was going on and it was fantastic. I have been to many poorly organized, dull conferences in the past and the AGI was top notch, you have a good team there as it all ran without a hitch.”

“I thought the AGI Conference was outstanding. You put on a great meeting and you have some very interesting members and attendees. I certainly came away substantially more optimistic about the outlook for the sector and how effective working with the community will help government deliver less for more. Huge thanks to you and all your team for making us feel so welcome and for making the event so much fun.”

“I thought the AGI conference was very good, Chris and the team work incredibly hard to put on such a polished event, and should be applauded for their efforts”.

“Thanks for such a great conference last week. I had a GREAT time and I came away feeling really good, motivated and inspired so well done”.

"I Just wanted to say a big thank you to all the AGI Team and Volunteers for organising this year’s AGI Conference. I found it hugely positive and as always came back from the event fully geo recharged, ready for another year. It was fascinating to hear from the CBI as well as Nigel Shadbolt. I certainly found this year’s conference probably one of the best conferences that I have been to in a very long time".

“Thanks to ... all at @geocommunity for another great conference see you all in Nottingham next year”.

See you in Nottingham for AGI GeoCommunity '11!