AGI Newsletter – keep up to date with our recent and upcoming activities, news, and events
Welcome to our latest newsletter!
From the Chair:
“Anyone who thinks gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year; for gardening begins in January with the dream.” – Josephine Neuse
It may be a cold month, but I love January. In recent years I’ve thought less about resolutions and more about goals, on both a personal and professional level. I particularly like that quote – as I’ve expressed to Council before, I see our role as elected members on Council less about managing an Association, but very much about getting the right environment and components in place to let our members and our industry flourish.
It’s been a fantastic start to the year for the Association. As you will see from the news below, we have a strong Council in place, elected by you, our members, to guide us through this year. It’s an honour and a privilege to have been elected by Council to serve as AGI Chair again during 2018.
I am also pleased to welcome Tom Flude in the role of Senior Public Affairs Manager to support our advocacy and public affairs work – and my recent meeting with the new Government Head of Geography, David Wood, gives me high hopes that we’ll see significant progress in UK Government’s support for geography; both as a profession and in the value of geographic information being recognised even further.
Abigail Page, AGI Chair, David Wood, Government Head of Geography, & Peter ter Haar, AGI Vice Chair
Strategically, our engagement with UK Government Investments regarding the Geospatial Commission continues to be well received and it’s now important that we hear from you, our members, on this exciting step forward. It’s January – dream big – what could we achieve?!
Thank you for your continuing support and please always get in touch with your views and ideas – it’s what drives us forward.
Abigail Page, AGI Chair
Recent activities:
Meet our new Council members:
What a great way to start the year! We have formally welcomed aboard six newly-elected members to serve the AGI’s Council for a three-year term. Each Council member contributes a unique array of expertise, knowledge and an all-important insight into the GI industry. The new Council will join those who continue their term to strengthen our outreach and engagement with our members and provide support to our Public Affairs and Advocacy work.
Read the full biographies here.
Council have elected Abigail Page to continue her term as AGI Chair for 2018. She is joined by Peter ter Haar as Vice Chair; and Chris Chambers and Merryn Henderson acting as Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Secretary respectively – further supported in our operational Executive Group by Dave Lovell and Matt Pennells.
Meet our new Senior Public Affairs Manager – Tom Flude
The AGI and Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) have warmly welcomed Tom Flude, as our new Senior Public Affairs Manager. Tom possesses valuable policy, strategy and public affairs experience from the public sector and non-profit organisations. Both organisations agree that he will play an integral role in ensuring the strengths of geography and geographic information are recognised, and their applications utilised more widely across the public, private and third sectors.
Add YOUR case studies to the AGI Library!
Did you know, this is just one of the many benefits of being an AGI member? Behind the scenes, we can refer new contacts and industry colleagues to your most interesting, online geographic information case studies!
As an organisation, we want to maximise the use of GI in as many ways as possible. In the past, we’ve spent time hunting down papers and case studies ourselves, on a case by case basis. But now, with a brand new Geospatial Commission in the offing, we’d like to create a bigger and better library of geographic information case studies on the AGI website – something that you and your colleagues can access as a resource, too.
So, this is a call for your case studies, highlighting problems solved using geographic information (as opposed to product or service promotions). Tell us, which examples would you like decision-makers to hear about?
- Send your URL links to us at: info@agi.org.uk (Mark your email, ‘Case Studies’)
- Or send papers to us directly at the same address (Accessible PDFs or Word only, please!)
We’ll add a broad range of submitted studies to our AGI template and promote them via social media (with links back to your business, naturally). What’s more, with the help of Tom Flude, our new Senior Public Affairs Manager, we’ll make sure decision-makers get to see even more examples of the great work you’re doing as a member of the AGI.
Click here to send us a case study/link now
SAVE THE DATE! Breakfast Briefing – “A Geospatial Commission that works for us all.”
We all welcome news of the Geospatial Commission – deriving greater value for UK plc from the many agencies creating or using geographic information in government today. As UK citizens, we should all benefit greatly. It is excellent news for the UK geocommunity!
Your opinion matters: Many vendors, suppliers, and AGI members are interested in the Commission’s work. Following on from our topical GeoCom Breakfast Briefing, we’re inviting you to join us, meeting selected guests, on February 22nd (8am, times to be confirmed) at the Church House in Westminster– with breakfast, of course – when we’ll be discussing the scope, logistics, and potential for the Commission’s outcomes. We’ll be asking key questions like this:
- How will the Commission’s work affect you, our members?
- Which challenges can we help the Geospatial Commission to address?
- What insights can we offer, what will help the Commission’s plan for our geo-future?
- What does the Commission need most, and what do we hope the Commission will achieve?
This will be a moderated event, free of charge to AGI members. We’ll be publishing the outcomes in two forms: as a paper that will be distributed exclusively to AGI members, and in an ongoing series of reports that will be updated as the Commission’s work progresses.
Register your interest now – From the applications, we’ll select around 30 members to join invited guests who represent an excellent cross-section of the GI community in the UK.
Please provide the following information in your application.
Name
Job title
Company
What interests you most about the Geospatial Commission’s scope or remit?”
Numbers will be limited, but, large or small, from surveyor to supplier, we encourage you to apply now and share your views on this first, Geospatial Commission-focused Breakfast Briefing.
Send your applications by February 9th!
AGI SCOTLAND – IT’S THE ANNUAL EVENT!
We are looking forward to AGI Scotland’s Annual Event 2018, on Tuesday 27th February 2018 at The Lighthouse, Glasgow. The event will showcase the latest innovation and development in geographic information. So…expect a day of ideas, discussion and networking with fellow members of Scotland’s GI community.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the committee and event organisers, welcoming sponsors who will be exhibiting at the event: Informed Solutions, 1Spatial, thinkWhere, British Geological Survey, Ordnance Survey, Verisk Analytics and CARTO.
On top of that we have an excellent range of speakers including; Layla Gordon, Ordnance Survey, Alan Moore, thinkWhere, Joann Russell, Historic Environment Scotland, Ali Fernie, British Geological Survey, Alex Cadzow, Cadzow Communications Consulting, Julie Proctor, Greenspace, and representatives from EDINA, Informed Solutions and many more!
Topics will include Geo-immersive reality, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, Data Protection, Intelligence from Scanned Maps, Maintaining Security, Ethics and Privacy, and much more!
Tickets are now available to both members and non-member. Based on the popularity of past events and the great delegate price, we expect there to be significant demand….grab yours here today
Earthquakes from space: Earth observation for quantifying earthquake risks – paper by Taylor and Francis
AGI’s Insurance and Risk SIG and the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc) Disaster Management SIG, held an event at the end of 2017. It welcomed both academics and insurance industry professionals who showcased the potential of earth observation, satellite and geospatial technologies to quantify earthquake risk. Taylor and Francis have since published a report which includes the extended abstracts from the events’ key speakers. A big congratulations to all those involved! Read the full report here.
Response to the Government’s call for evidence:
AGI Council member, Dave Lovell, compiled a response to the Government’s call for evidence on improving the home buying and selling process. Thank you to all who provided input, you can view the response here.
Upcoming events/activities:
- The 2017-18 Edinburgh Earth Observatory – AGI-Scotland Seminar Series continues this year with David Henderson, Managing Director of Ordnance Survey, on January 26th. David will be discussing Changing the face of the master map of Great Britain. Talks are open to all – more information and full series programme can be accessed here. Julie Procter, Greenspace Scotland, will be presenting at the next seminar on Friday 16th February 2018.
- GeoPlace is running a consultation on the National Street Gazetteer (GeoPlace DEC-Streets Consultation Version 4.0). Responses are invited right up to the closing date – Wednesday 28th February. Details of the consultation and how to submit your comments can be accessed here.
- Geovation, Ordnance Survey’s award-winning innovation initiative and London Hub, is hosting Geovate 2018: Building Greener, Smarter Communities event at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) on February 16th 2018. The conference will mark the end of a 3-day camp where an expert team will explore and develop the ideas of this year’s challenge winners. For more information, the agenda and to book your free place visit: https://geovate2018.splashthat.com/
- Want to share news of your successes? The GEO Business team would love to hear from you: they’ve extended their Call for Abstracts deadline, asking for presentations that demonstrate the remarkable impact geospatial technologies and solutions are having on our global environment – and you now have until February 2nd to get your entries in. Go online to check the Abstracts’ details here.
- And, as ever, many of our corporate members (Geodata Institute, Edina, Cadline, thinkWhere) have several training courses days coming up. More information here.
In the news:
- A new concept by the Ordnance Survey, British Geological Survey and Future Cities Catapult – A digital picture of the ground beneath us – has potential to enlighten what lies beneath our feet and provide a more complete picture of our cities. More information here.
- Daimler takes a stake in an innovative British mapping startup – What3Words – that created an entirely new postcode system for Mongolia in 2017. Full article here.
- Professor Andy Tatem, University of Southampton, Director of the WorldPop project and co-director of Flowminder Foundation, recently presented Mapping population and displacement at the RGS-IBG. Listen to the podcast here.
- And finally, a tip of the hat is due again to Ordnance Survey – on top of winning Geovation Hub of the Year – as OS has been appointed by the UK’s Business Secretary, Greg Clark, to help shape a national infrastructure supporting a nationwide network of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs).
If there’s anything you would like to share with the AGI community, be it a personal insight into the industry, a corporate member’s event or press release, then get in touch.
Send your contributions to info@agi.org.uk – no fake news please!
(Remember we want to hear from you! Use info@agi.org.uk to send us your case studies – and register your interest for our Geospatial Commission Breakfast Briefing now!)
Thanks for taking some time to stay up to date with us.
Best wishes,
The AGI team