The Canadian Geomatics Conference 2010 is just around the corner.  It’s going to be in Calgary the week after next and the theme is Convergence in Geomatics: Shaping Canada’s Competitive Landscape.

According to the Geomatics Industry Association of Canada (GIAC), the national advocacy organization representing a cross section of firms conducting geomatics activity in Canada and one of the organizers of the event, the geomatics industry in Canada employs about 23,000 specialists and generates about $2.8 billion dollars per year.

The Opening Ceremony will take place Tuesday, June 15 and the guest speakers will be

• The Honourable Doug Horner, Minister of Advanced Education and Technology and Deputy Premier of Alberta
• The Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Natural Resources Canada

This will be followed by a panel discussion on the way geomatics can contribute more significantly to Canada’s productivity and competiveness.  Panelists include

• Mr. Glen Hodgson, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Conference Board of Canada
• Governor Jim Geringer (Wyoming 1995 – 2003), Director of Public Policy and Strategy, ESRI

The panel will be facilitated by Mr. Prashant Shukle, Director General, Mapping Information Branch, Natural Resources Canada and Mr. David Gariepy, Chair, GIAC.

the featured panellists for the Plenary Session on Wednesday will be

• Professor Orhan Altan, President of ISPRS
• Professor Mark R. Shortis, ISPRS
• Dr. Geoff Zeiss, Director of Technology, Autodesk, Inc.

Some of the technical sessions of general interest that caught my eye include

• GeoConnections Plans and Priorities – Sylvain Latour
• The Geobase initiative: an examination of the key framework data component of the CGDI. Corinna Vester (NRC), Éric Loubier (NRC)
• SDI: An international perspective. David Coleman (UNB)
• Convergence and the digital infrastructure for a green economy. Geoff Zeiss (Autodesk)
• Convergence and societal impacts of geographic information in the geoeconomy. Robert Ryerson (KGC), Stan Aronoff (KGC)
• Critical infrastructure monitoring using high resolution SAR satellites. Desmond Power (C-CORE), Paul Adlakha (C-CORE), Marina Dragosevic (C-CORE), Peter McGuire (C-CORE), Paris Vachon (DRDC Ottawa), Pierre Meunier (DRDC CSS)
• Polar View – a program to support climate change adaptation. Paul Adlakha, Thomas Puestow, Desmond Power (C-CORE)
• The dissemination of government geographic data – best practices guide version 2.0. Jennifer Sokol (NRC), Gordon Garrard (NRC)
• Federal geomatics standards – the story so far. Brian McLeod (GeoConnections), Mohamed Habbane (GeoConnections)
• CGDI in action: exploring quality of service. Sheng Gao (UNB), David Coleman (UNB), Craig MacLachlan (ESRI Canada), Gordon Plunkett (ESRI Canada)
• Pillars of the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure, Ryan Ogston (NRC), Andre Pregent (NRC), Jeannine Parent (GeoConnections, NRCan), Rebecca Last (NRC), Jennifer Sokol (NRC)
• Spatial data quality compliance: a preventive approach. Joel Grira, Stéphane Roche, Yvan Bédard (Laval University)
• When open data meets closed data. Sandy Ward (HomeZilla)
• Compiling a geospatial database of existing oil sands industrial features for Alberta Environment. Caroline Bampfylde (Alberta Environment), Simon Hughes (Hatfield Consultants), Don Page (Alberta Environment), Brett Purdy (Alberta Environment), Susna Stanley (Hatfield Consultants), Aneeqa Syed (Hatfield Consultants)