GeoIgnite 2024: What’s new and exciting this year?

I’m excited for GeoIgnite 2024. After five years of anticipation, the first in-person GeoIgnite is finally taking place in Ottawa. It was such an enormous success in the community since the 2019 inaugural event. However, due to COVID-19 and its implications, it took some time to get back.

As part of the conference advisory committee, I would like to give you a glimpse into the themes within the conference and also tell you which one is my favorite.

Our keynote speaker, Steven Ramage begins the conference by starting addressing “Human Interoperability: Enhancing Geospatial Effectiveness in the Relationship Economy,” He is going to talk about the idea of valuing current resources and maximizing the use of data and technology, particularly in the geospatial sector. As CEOS’s Executive Officer, Ramage offers his own viewpoint on interagency cooperation, stressing the importance of complementarity in Earth observation endeavors.

GeoIgnite this year showcases “Canada’s Geospatial Leadership Panel”, the spotlight of the conference, which includes some of the country’s most prominent speakers on geospatial technology.  The panelists bring with them their expertise and extensive knowledge of leveraging geospatial technologies in the area of proper governance of standards and policies for using GIS, handling wildfire management to combat climate change impacts in Canada, strategic use of geospatial data in government and businesses and sustainable urban planning with right fusion of GIS and buildingSMART Canada.

For 2024 the three themes for GeoIgnite are:

• Geomatics for climate resiliency,
• Geospatial Leadership and artificial intelligence (GEOAI),
• buildingSMART Canada is joining the conference to present its own tract on BIM/GIS interoperability and digital twin technology.

   ‘Geomatics for Climate Resiliency’ is my favorite topic. The reason is that climate change is one of the major challenges of our time     and for future generations. In my opinion, it is critical to learn and know about advancements in geomatics techniques that can help us     comprehend changing weather patterns and make better predictions before hand.

• Here you will get a chance to learn about Earth observation products with end-users for the WildFireSat mission from Morgan Crowley Forest Fire Research Scientist at Natural Resources Canada.
• You can’t miss how GIS and LiDAR research can be used to map the east coast from Research Scientist, Dr Tim Webster from Applied Geomatics Research Group NSCC.
• Catherine Champagne from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada will provide some insight on how earth observation can boost agricultural landscape monitoring. Canada’s land area is changing over annual and decadal time scales as a result of changes in annual crop production, urban expansion, sustainable land use/management and a changing climate.
• You will get a chance to hear Jon Belanger from Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC), speaking on building climate resilience has never been so urgent. Get to know how GIS and climate change modeling are used to create resilient communities and boost climate risk assessment.

In the Geospatial leadership and AI program. Professionals with backgrounds in GIS analysis and management who recently took on the role of GIS manager or who hope to do so in the future will get useful insight into how they can optimize the organizational impact of their GIS. Also:

• How will deep learning and geospatial AI impact our future societies? Evolving machine learning and digital twin will provide detailed insight to solve the unsolvable.
• With GeoAI in the air, several important businesses, and technical aspects of putting in place a subsurface mapping system will be covered, including data collection and the application of machine learning to 3D modeling and visualization. Use cases and real-world examples will also be provided.
• A presentation will delve into the groundbreaking impacts of these innovations such as micro-services on the geospatial industry and showcase how companies who embrace these chances can grow more efficiently.

BIM/GIS/Digital Twin is another tract within the event. GoGeomatics is working with Gold Sponsors buildingSMART Canada to create a whole program for interoperability. Here you would get a chance to hear from:

• Stephen Fai  from Carleton University is presenting on Canada’s Digital Twin Project.
• John Hale and Paul Churcher from the department of defense is talking about BIM and GIS interoperability.
• Claudia Cozzitorto, the President of buildingSMART Canada is giving a keynote for this tract.

So, this was a short preview of the themes for GeoIgnite 2024. My upcoming post will give you an insight into the workshops that are taking place during this event. Stay tuned, and do not miss a chance to register if you haven’t.