The AGI GeoBig 5 - Policy

Policy! Policy! Will anyone come along?

Well that was the first reaction from the AGI Cyrmu steering group when we discussed this theme for our part of the GEO Big5 programme. Compared to some of the slightly more sexy themes on the agenda we thought it would be an uphill struggle to deliver a stimulating and appealing day. 

How wrong we were.

As we got into the topic and considered both its significance to what we all do and the varying aspects for how we could run an engaging and exciting day we quickly found out a number of really interesting themes that we could focus in on for an interactive and lively GEO; Big5  event. 

Policy affects us all. Sometimes we moan about it and it seems overcomplicated and a burden. At other times it’s exciting and innovative and it moves us all forward in our jobs. The GIS community has to interpret policy, advise and convince management what the best options are for its adoption. Suppliers develop solutions to help people implement and comply with policy– a challenge as guidance never stays still! Then there is the effect GI has in shaping policy itself – location is a fundamental principle in helping to draft, deliver and measure the benefit of policy. There is also the policy of GI itself.

So at first what seemed a topic that would send us all to sleep has made us all think and got us really excited as we have put the programme together.

The AGI Policy event is certainly fast approaching, and scheduled to take place on 9^th October at the SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff.   The event is sure to attract a variety of public and private sector delegates as well as several exciting exhibitors, including our Platinum Sponsors Ordnance Survey and ESRI UK.  Following some great keynotes, the day will focus on the relationship between Policy and Geospatial with a split stream session of “Policy influencing GI” and “GI Influencing Policy”.  The afternoon sessions includes a series of lightning talks and a highly anticipated GI Interactive group event which will provide voting, networking and debating opportunities about some of the issues you should really care about.

Directly after the event will be a tips and tricks session, where you may find yourself learning some new skills and getting some value you can take back into your organisations and implement straight away.

If you want a bit of an ice-breaker before the event, come and join us at Y Mochyn Du pub at 7pm on 8^th October for a drink!

The AGIC Team

View the event programme here

Platinum Sponsor Comments:

Esri UK is delighted to sponsor the GEO: The Big Five Policy event in Cardiff on 9th October. Esri UK is committed to helping organisations across the public sector meet the most pressing policy challenges and implement government priorities – giving the geographic insight needed to make better decisions.  Esri GIS solutions help the public sector enrich operations, meet missions and better communicate with the public.

For further information on how Esri UK supports Government Policy, email info@esriuk.com or visit www.esriuk.com/government .

Ordnance Survey is proud to sponsor the GEO: Big Five Policy event in Cardiff on 9th October. Through the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) we are already supporting the majority of Welsh public sector organisations in identifying efficiencies and cost savings in policy creation, monitoring and delivery. We would like to ensure this opportunity is exploited by all our public sector customers and look forward to discussing how we can work together to make this happen.

Getting Ready for Summer at the AGI

I've managed to find time from website specs, CRM user stories and PR plans to write the first blog in ages. It’s very very warm in the office which must mean it’s nearly time for the summer holidays so before everyone disappears to somewhere exotic and exciting I thought I’d give a quick preview of what you’ve got to look forward to when you come back.

GeoBig 5 - Big Data:

The next of the GeoBig5 events is looking at big data from both the perspective of how technologies and practices can and are impacting geospatial data collection and analysis and the opportunities provided by so much big data containing a geospatial element. The full programme will be released next week for what’s going to be a great event at the IBM hub in London on 30 September.

GeoBig 5 - Policy:

The final one day event of the GeoBig5 series will be exploring both the implications of policy on geospatial (INSPIRE, Open Data etc) and also the positive impact geospatial can have in informing policy decisions. The call for papers for this event closes on the 1 August so there is still time to submit. The event takes place in Cardiff on 9 October.

GeoCom ’14:

The culmination of the fantastic GeoBig5 series. Having been at the recent planning meeting and paper selection for this event I can safely say GeoCom ’14 is going to be something special and unlike any previous AGI conference. As well as having secured Sir Mark Walport (Government Chief Scientist) as our keynote we’ve got a mixture of presentations, lightning talks, workshops and training that will make the whole conference a lot more vital and dynamic. GeoCom ’14 takes place between the 11 and 13 November at the very pleasant Chesford Grange Hotel, earlybird booking with a 10% discount is still open.

Awards:

The final event of the year and a fitting end to 2014 will be the new AGI Awards for Geospatial Excellence. Replacing the previous AGI awards these will take a much broader and more outward looking view of the industry to promote and recognise excellence and innovation. Compared by TV’s Professor Iain Stewart (A great evangelist for the power of Geography and GI) this will be a great showcase for the industry and a chance to see some of the great ideas from 2014. This will take place on the 13 November at the Chesford Grange Hotel following on from GeoCom. Awards submissions are still open.

Website:

The project that has been absorbing my blogging time is well underway and the new look AGI website should be greeting our members as they return from their summer holidays in September. Complete with content hub, best practice documents, space for SIGs and other AGI groups to interact the new site will provide both a showcase for the AGI and UK GI and a resource and benefit for our members.

And Finally

It’s hot, the evenings are bright and we’re not quite ready for summer yet so why not come along to the next AGI Geodrinks on the 23 July? These are being hosted by the Insurance and Risk SIG at the Crosse Keys (extra e not a typo) on Gracechurch Street, London. Its an Insurance and Risk event but other Geo talk is more than welcome!

Call for Papers and Geo: The Big 5

The call for papers for Geo: The Big 5 is now open and we have already received a number of abstracts. However it has emerged that there is some confusion over what can be submitted and where and just as importantly who selects it. The idea of the submissions page on the website was to keep things as simple as possible as it has been suggested that the somewhat convoluted admissions process has put people off in the past.

The first point to note is that we are running the call for all events at the same time so if you have a paper that you would like to present at the Big Data event in September you can send it in now.

Secondly it is very important to reiterate that there are two streams at each of the single day Big 5 events (more at GeoCom) and this is reflected in the call for papers. Each event has a theme (Future Cities, Open Geospatial etc) and we welcome paper submissions under the relevant theme for each event. This will take up one stream at the event designed to cater for a UK wide audience. The selection of papers for this stream will be undertaken by the events Action Working Group (AWG) with advice from relevant SIGs.

The second stream at each conference will consist of case studies and best practice from the wider field of geo that are of interest to the local area (and we’re taking a broad definition of local here). For example for the Future Cities event in Glasgow there will be a second stream of content populated by case studies showcasing the work of Scottish organisation and at the Policy event in Wales there will be case studies form Welsh organisations and so on. The local National/Regional group will be heavily involved in selecting the content for this stream (alongside advising on the main stream). The ultimate goal being to have an event that is significant across the UK GI industry that also provides a forum for the constituent nations and regions of the UK to showcase issues and work that is of interest to the local GI community.

Finally if you have a great paper on Future Cities for example but can’t make the Glasgow conference we will also be carrying the Big 5 themes into the annual conference (along with some others) so you can always submit now to present it there. The GeoCom conference will be wrapping up the themes from the other conferences and the best papers from each of the one day events may well feature.

Basically we don’t want to put people off applying, the Big 5 themes are there to guide the debate through a series of exciting events not to be a barrier. If you have done something exciting and innovative in GI then the AGI want to hear about it and give you the chance to show it off to the wider industry!

Geo: The Big 5 - Launching our 2014 Events!

Last week we launched our main events series for 2014 titled ‘Geo: The Big 5’. This is a series of six national events (the five referring to the issues) made up of five one day events and the annual conference.

With this year being the 25^th Anniversary of the AGI we wanted to ensure that rather than looking to the past we produced an event series that is tackling the issues in the industry today and looking towards changes in the future.

Throughout 2013 we held discussions with our members, SIGs, delegates at events and industry experts to help identify some of the top issues and challenges that the industry is experiencing today. We had great feedback on this and have managed to group most of these issues into the following five areas:

·        Future Cities

·        Open Geospatial

·        Big Data

·        BIM and Asset Management

·        Policy

Each of these topics will have its own one day event dedicated to it and have been chosen because they are nationally significant.

The first event of the series will be Future Cities and will (rather appropriately) be held in Glasgow, home of the Future Cities Demonstrator on the 18^th March.

It’s important to note that we aren’t neglecting other areas of the industry and each conference will contain a strong second stream of content showcasing best practice and innovation beyond the main theme of the conference. The second stream in Glasgow for example will showcase great uses of GI from within Scotland.

All of these themes will feature in the annual conference ‘GeoCom: The Changing Face of Geo’. The new annual conference will serve to bring together the discussions from the other events and set the agenda for Geo going in to 2015 and beyond.

Plans are well underway with a number of speakers already lined up and a call for papers ready to go for what is going to be an exciting programme of events. Last year’s showcase events were a great success but we’re confident that this is going to be something a bit more special.

To book for any of the events click here

If you want any more information or are interested in volunteering with the organising groups for any of the events (or think you know a great speaker) then please get in touch! (chris.rhodes@agi.org.uk) 

Also as part of the new look events series we are using the lovely new logo you can see at the top and will be tweeting under #geobig5