Lidar CANEX 2023 Industry Panel: What is the future of Lidar?

Lidar CANEX 2023 presentations ended Tuesday, April 25, 2023 with a Panel discussion on “What is the future of Lidar?”

The moderator was Dr. Tim Webster of the AGRG, Jennifer Triana Director of Business Development from TopoDot, Gaspar Lima Senior Channel Manager Americas from NavVis, Mohamed Hassanein Trainer & part of the technical support team at Cansel, and Michael Sitar, RIEGL Canada Managing Director.

The presentation opened with a discussion on the difficulty in getting and keeping qualified people in the industry. For some of the panelists, it is hard to find and keep qualified people, and are hoping education at all levels can help promote this industry to a new generation. One common complaint is new graduates don’t want to go into the field, they want to stay in the office. It is a challenge to overcome. 

The Geospatial industry is increasing with cutting edge technology, and though jobs seem hard to get, those in the industry are finding new opportunities. The struggle for other panelists is keeping qualified persons as they are willing to move anywhere for an opportunity. It is expensive to train someone, just to watch them leave. Working with educational institutions helps build relationships and loyalty. Education is not enough, marketing has to be used to add value and appeal to the industry jobs. 

Other questions discussed were how to incorporate different styles of career paths, how important are free and open virtual events like Lidar CANEX 2023 for raising awareness, Is there a catalog of as-built structures to help populate models accurately, how to help people how Lidar will help and what it can be used for,  and what does it mean for the future of the sector now that sensors can be in Iphones and other similar devices?

Watch the video to hear the responses to these questions and more.

Thank you to all of our sponsors for Lidar CANEX 2023.