Montreal: Join me at the Earth Observation Summit June 20-22, 2017
As a recent graduate of the Fleming GIS program I jumped at the chance to attend the Earth Observation (EO) Summit 2017 on behalf of GoGeomatics in Montreal. This will be my first geospatial conference and I’m excited to experience what our community has to offer in Remote Sensing.
A big thank you to the organizers of the EO Summit for the opportunity to attend the event and share my thoughts by writing about my experience on the pages of GoGeomatics Canada. After the conference, please follow up with me in late June on the GoGeomatics magazine as I write about my time at the summit.
What is the Earth Observation Summit?
The EO Summit 2017 brings together in one exceptional event the 38th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing (CSRS), the 17th Congress of the Association Québécoise de Télédétection (AQT), the 11th Advanced SAR (ASAR) Workshop and the 51st Workshop of the Association de Géomatique Municipale du Québec (AGMQ). The EO event is one of the biggest Remote Sensing events in Canada with hundreds of participants and 20+ vendors to engage with.
When is the Summit?
This international event is held in Montréal from 20th to 22nd June 2017. Training on remote sensing applications and technologies will be offered on June 19th (Summer school) and 23rd (SAR Tutorials).
Why is this Earth Observation Summit important?
It aims to assemble several communities interested in EO, its technologies, its applications and its societal benefits.
What is on the agenda for the conference?
These workshops intend to gather the relevant communities, allowing them to share their views on the opportunities offered by remote sensing and to recommend an action plan.
| Mon, June 19 | Summer School (9am - 5pm) The Summer School aims at providing to the attending participants the opportunity to gain knowledge about applications of various remote sensing technologies in several domains that are given by seven experts in their area. - Presentation of an on-line course for Radar Remote Sensing Training - Drones in the Service of the Agriculture Sector - Visible, Near-Infrared and Thermal Hyperspectral Imagery in Urban Areas - An Education Initiative for Applied Radar Remote Sensing on behalf of DLR - Remote Sensing of Vegetation - Hyperspectral Image Analysis A UAV demonstration and competition is also presented in nearby Saint-Amable (Qc). Transportation is included, departing from the Conference venue. |
| Tues, June 20 | Workshop 1: Commercialization of Earth Observation (11am - 5pm) - Changing Roles of Government and Private Sector - Creating Sustainable Business - Building and Supporting New Enterprises Workshop 3: Wildfire Remote Sensing (11am - 5:30pm) It will bring together the Canadian and international community involved that uses remote sensing as applied to wildfire. Several aspects of management and research will be addressed, including areas that relate to pre-fire monitoring and post-fire mapping. It covers the involvements from ground to space, and touches on popular topics such as the use of drones, international collaboration and the cost of fires. In the morning, specific abstract-based presentations will be in parallel break-out sessions, interrupted by short periods of general discussion. - Parallel Presentation Sessions – Abstracts (Pre-Fire; During Fire; Post-Fire) Ice-Breakers (evening) |
| Wed, June 21 | Workshop 2: Public Health Practices (9am - 5:30pm) This workshop is an invitation to the large remote sensing community to seek the potential contribution from EO to address public health issues with their own field of expertise (technology, applications, methods). - Session One Earth One Health Presentations will be held by the national and international communities on current EO applications, tools & solutions for public health issues. - Problem Solving Using Scenarios Participants will be able to discuss different scenarios related to five public health themes (vector, water & air borne diseases, vulnerable human populations, and emergency management). - Discussion on the Scenarios & Upcoming Report This discussion will help inform a report regarding the potential new contribution of space-based EO to public health. Workshop 3: Wildfire Remote Sensing (9am - 5pm) In the morning, specific abstract-based presentations will be in parallel break-out sessions, interrupted by short periods of general discussion. - Parallel Presentation Sessions – Abstracts (Pre-Fire; During Fire; Post-Fire) - Keynote & Panel Discussion on Bridging Research and Reality Banquet Dinner |
| Thur, June 22 | Workshop 3: Wildfire Remote Sensing (1:30pm-4:30pm) In the morning will be reserved for panel discussions with Canadian and international representatives from the federal and provincial government, industry and academic world represented in the panels. - Parallel Presentation Sessions – Abstracts (Pre-Fire; During Fire; Post-Fire) - Discussion & Reporting; Presentation of Results Workshop 4: Municipal and Regional Sectors This day will be organized by the Association de Géomatique Municipale du Québec (AGMQ). Additional detail are on their way. |
| Fri, June 23 | SAR Tutorial Sessions (English only) The goal of the workshop is to describe how to effectively use the new Geomatica InSAR module for end-to-end processing, to exploit the full information content that can be extracted from commercially available interferometric SAR data sets. - Interferometric Processing - Space-based GMTI radar - The role of Spaceborne SAR in Cryosphere Science |
Where is conference located?
The Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) science centre (Coeur des sciences) nearby the lively Montréal Quartier des spectacles, a popular cultural and entertainment destination. Do not miss this opportunity to take part in Montréal’s 375th anniversary celebrations.
How much will this cost?
Registration to the EO Summit is done on-line. Please register before May 1st to benefit from the early registration rates.
Registration provides access to the entire EO Summit venue including plenaries, exhibitors hall and access to all three Workshops. Additional cost for training on June 19th and 23rd are not included.
Questions?
Questions about the event? If you have questions or need more information please visit the event website and contact the organizers by going here.
I will see you there!
I hope to see you at the event. If you are going please leave a comment below to let me know. I’d love to meet you and chat at the event about remote sensing in Canada.
It is good to see enthusiasm for conferences by a younger practitioner in our field. Nothing (neither Facebook nor LinkedIn nor any other Internet-based approach) beats the face-to-face networking that can be done at a conference or, for that matter, a GoGeomatics social where people circulate. But conferences are best because of the concentration of a broad range of people with a broad range of interests. Conferences certainly unlocked access to a wonderful career for me. And it has been at such conferences that I have met a number of people I have enjoyed mentoring. In my view conferences are so important that my company is a Bronze Sponsor for the meeting in Montreal. I will see you in Montreal!
Thank you, I am looking forward to this conference to meet more like minded GIS people and to check out all the projects that people have come up with to solve spatial problems. Montreal is also such a great city that I love to visit. I will see you there!