Aurora, Colo., May 7, 2007—The Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) has announced the 2007 Speaker Award winners from its recent Annual Conference 30 in San Antonio, Texas. The award recognizes the top five percent of session speakers, each of whom were rated by session participants in the areas of quality of presentation, content of session, visual aids, and relevance of topic. GITA also congratulates its 2nd Annual Poster Session winners.
Recognized as a leading educational association dedicated to geospatial information, GITA has developed a reputation for bringing together industry leaders to present papers, take part in panel discussions, and participate in seminars at the association’s annual conference. Using their industry knowledge in addition to effective presentation skills, these speakers share their experience with GIS professionals.
The recipients of the 2007 GITA Speaker Award include:
• Rachel Arulraj, Parsons Brinckerhoff – "Emerging Geospatial Technologies for 3-D Visualization"
• Peter Batty – "What’s New and Cool, And Where Are we Going?"
• Bill Gail, Microsoft Virtual Earth – "Internet Geospatial: Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Vision" (part of half-day seminar, "Mapping Applications on the Web: Evolution or Revolution?")
• Xavier Lopez, Oracle Corporation – "Spatial Databases: An Overview" (part of half-day seminar, "Spatial Databases 101: The Fundamentals")
• David Maguire, ESRI – "Implementing Enterprise Geographic Information Systems using Distributed Information Technology"
• Bruce Oswald, James W. Sewall Company – "Keys for Successful GIS Projects"
• Geoff Zeiss, Autodesk, Inc. – "Geospatial Inflection Point: Web 2.0, Open Source, and CAD/GIS/BIM Convergence" (part of half-day seminar, "Mapping Applications on the Web: Evolution or Revolution?")
• Geoff Zeiss, Autodesk, Inc. – "Spatial Interoperability Enables Multi-vendor Infrastructure Management Solutions"
Poster session submissions were on display on the exhibit floor for the duration of the conference, where they were judged by a panel in the five categories. Conference attendees also voted for the People’s Choice Award.
Winners of the poster session are:
• Best 3-Dimensional: “Western Carolina Streambed Mapping Project,” submitted by Roger Cottrell, Jr. Watershed Concepts
• Best Cartographic: “Site Suitability,” submitted by Andrea Nifong, McKim & Creed, PA
• Best Analytical: “GIS Fusion & Analysis of Remote Sensing Data Streams,” submitted by Steven Stearns, Michale Stoogenke, Steven Broskey; ITT
• Best Non-Traditional: “Critical Infrastructure Protection & the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure,” submitted by Paula Rojas, Phillip Dawe; GeoConnections
• People’s Choice: “Western Carolina Streambed Mapping Project,” submitted by Roger Cottrell, Jr. Watershed Concepts
GITA’s Annual Conference 30 featured 99 paper presentations, 14 seminars, four panel discussions, and an exhibition hall.
GITA’s Annual Conference 31 is set for March 9-12, 2008, at the Washington State Convention Center is Seattle, Wash. Details on submitting abstracts for the conference are available at www.gita.org/seattle. The deadline for abstract submissions is July 9, 2007.
About GITA
The mission of the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) is to provide excellence in education, information exchange and applied research on the use and benefits of geospatial information and technology in business, utility and government applications worldwide. Visit GITA on the Web at www.gita.org.