Map ME 2006 conference to be held next week

Organised jointly by Dubai Municipality and GIS Development, the Map Middle East 2006 conference will be held during 26-29 March at Dubai World Trade Centre with the theme being: 'Geospatial for All and All for Geospatial.'

"The purpose of this theme is to showcase the capability that geospatial information and technology provides for governance, national security and infrastructure which leads to better quality of life," said Mohammed Abdulla Al Zaffin, Director of Dubai GIS Centre, addressing a press conference Wednesday at Dubai Municipality. The press conference was also attended by Sanjay Kumar, CEO, GIS Development and Manal Al Shamlan, Head of Geographic Information Systems Section at Dubai Municipality.

Zaffin said geospatial technology is fast evolving as an important tool for various application segments. Owing to the diversified applications of geospatial techniques, its usage as a 'Public Utility Tool' is being established worldwide. The Middle East, in particular, has been a leading region in accepting geospatial technologies as a 'public utility tool'. Further, geospatial tools have the potential to become an enabling platform for a wide range of application needs of citizens belonging to the various nations of the region. In view of the relevance of geospatial technology as public utility tool, Map Middle East 2006 will have this theme. It will explore manners and ways in which geospatial tools can reach out to citizens and benefit them in future.

Zaffin noted that Map Middle East 2006 is a premier trade show in the field of geospatial technology in the Middle East. It will provide an exclusive platform to discuss and network amongst the participating delegates from the member nations of the region along with professionals and industry representatives from the rest of the world. It will bring all the stakeholders in the geospatial domain - researchers, students, academia, and the industry - onto one platform to deliberate, interact, share and collaborate in the field of geospatial technologies and applications. Senior government officials, industry leaders and respected academicians from various countries of Middle East and rest of the world will attend the event.

The conference will be inaugurated by Eng. Hussain Lootah, Acting Director General of Dubai Municipality, and addressed by Prof. V. S. Ramamurthy, Secretary Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India and Prof. Milan Konecny, President of International Cartographic Association.

The highlight of conference is the 'Plenary Session' on "Geospatial for All, All for Geospatial"; "Critical Geospatial Applications" where eminent geospatial leaders such as Michael T Jones, Chief Technology Officer, Google Earth, Prof. David Rhind, Vice Chancellor of City University, UK, Prof. Ian Dowman, Presient of International Soceity for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Ms. Preetha Pulusani, President of SGI Division, Intergraph, and Prof Gottfreid Konecny of University of Hannover, would be addressing the conference. Keynote Sessions on "Positioning and Locational Intelligence, Emerging GIS Trends and Application Tracks (Security, Governance, Land Administration, Infrastructure)" will also be addressed by various eminent speakers both from the government and industry sector. During the conference, two 'workshops' will be organized: (1)GIS Ethics and Law & (2)GIS Project Management.

An important feature of this conference will be the Student Forum, which is an initiative taken by Dubai Municipality to spread awareness on mapping technology amongst the school kids in the age-group of 12-15 years.

"We are attaching much significance to this forum, because it is very important to educate the young generation on geographical information systems. The event, organised in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, will provide the kids a right venue for learning through fun as we have arranged lot of educational games and competitions for the children," said Al Zaffin.

About 51 Exhibitors would be participating in the exhibition from the government and the industry. The conference will have over 80 paper presentations and 60 poster presentations.

The Map Middle East conference would be an annual feature in Dubai's calendar of events, which will help introduce GIS stakeholders with the newest technologies and trends in the field.