IMIA held its Mapping Leaders Forum at the Esri R&D Center in Arlington, Virginia on Thursday, January 30th. The full-day event included more than a dozen topical presentations by industry leaders and provided attendees several opportunities to network with presenters and IMIA members. The post-event social gathering was held at Continental Modern Pool Lounge.

Dr. Nadine Alameh

The morning keynote was given by Dr. Nadine Alameh, CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium. Her presentation “From Geospatial to Location: Evolution and Trends” reviewed the progression from GIS to Geospatial and beyond, underscoring the value of industry standards and OGC’s efforts to make location Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR).

The afternoon keynote presentation by Jaime Schmidt, USFS Acting Assistant Director for Recreation Heritage and Volunteer Resources, provided a look at their Stewardship Approach to U.S. Forest Service Trails Data Management, an initiative that connects people to over 159,000 miles of  trails across 154 national forests and grasslands nationwide.

The day included additional tracks and presentations. The government session included presentations from Ivan Deloatch, Executive Director of Federal Geographic Data Committee; Amy Nelson, Deputy GIO at the U.S. Department of Transportation and Shirley Hall, Geospatial Program Manager and Acting GIO at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

International Mapping’s Director of Research Marissa Wood presented on boundary disputes around the world.

Ivan Deloatch

The National Digital Trails Project was another important topic to cover. Attendees heard from Daniel Morissette, President and Software Engineer at Mapgears; Debbie Fugate, Ph.D., Deputy Director, National Geospatial Program at the U.S. Geological Survey and Esri’s Mark Cygan, Director National Mapping Solutions and Dolores Buljevic, National Government Civilian Team Manager.

In addition to those valuable sessions, IMIA offered attendees a get-to-know-you session giving them ample time to network among their peers. Members also had the opportunity to provide a quick presentation on their company. Attendees heard from Esri, Azenza Systems, AND Products BV, TrakMaps and Xentity Corporation.

For more information on our speakers and their presentations, click here.

IMIA has kicked off the planning for the next Mapping Leaders Forum. Registration is now open for the June 18 event at the Source Hotel in Denver, Colorado. Speakers will be announced soon. Click here to register.