European LiDAR Mapping Forum – December 4-5, 2012, Salzburg, Austria
International LiDAR Mapping Forum – February 11-13, 2013 Denver, Colorado, USA
What a year it has been for the LiDAR Mapping Forum Series run by Intelligent Exhibitions. Not only did the 2nd outing of the European version wow audiences, once again establishing its popularity within the industry calendar but the International Forum based in the US set a new record for attendees!
On the back of all the recent success, the organisers are excited to announce the dates for both events with the European LiDAR Mapping Forum (ELMF) returning to Salzburg in Austria from 4-5 December 2012 and the International LiDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF) returning to Denver, Colorado in the US from February 11-13, 2013.
It is a welcome return to Salzburg for ELMF, when in 2011 it moved there from The Hague in the Netherlands and the new venue earned so much positive feedback from visitors and exhibitors alike that the organisers are delighted to return there for a second year. Director of ELMF, Versha Carter, explains, “We have been overwhelmed by delegates telling us how wonderful the venue was last year in Salzburg. The open-plan layout of the Congress building brought everyone together and was well-liked by delegates and exhibitors. Salzburg’s central location in Europe may have contributed to the increase in visitors from Eastern Europe, which is an important consideration for next year’s venue. Salzburg also provided a special dimension with its Christmas markets that delegates were able to enjoy, as well as the drinks reception on the opening night which was very popular for networking.” There were over 445 attendees from 40 different countries and interestingly, there were almost twice as many visitors from Eastern Europe as the first event.
Across the water in the States, ILMF set a new record for attendees in January this year, when 773 professionals from 29 different countries turned up in droves for the 12th annual event. This proved once again that LIDAR, in its increasing variety of operational formats, is becoming the technology of choice for fast, accurate and quality geospatial data acquisition. Whether supporting highly detailed 3D urban mapping projects, forestry management, or railroad and power transmission line maintenance programs, LIDAR technology delivers the results needed by today’s demanding geospatial and mapping professionals.
Conference Chairman of both events, Alastair MacDonald of TMS International, believes each event produces conference programmes that represent a thriving community: “The quality of the papers presented at both events was outstanding. The highly positive reaction to the topics from the delegates, which included many newcomers as end-users of LIDAR data, showed how important and relevant the chosen subjects were to the fast growing LIDAR community.”
In the coming weeks, the organisers will be launching a Call for Papers for both events whereby prospective authors will be able to submit their abstracts online, all of which will be peer reviewed by the Technical Committee of leading industry experts from across the spectrum of the LIDAR community, and both programmes will be announced later this year.
Running alongside both conferences will once again be the major exhibitions with more than 50 leading companies expected who will demonstrate new LIDAR products and a wide range of new technologies and services. Exhibitors historically include the LIDAR and complementary sensor manufacturers, survey service companies, data processing, GIS and management specialists and the latest mobile mapping vehicles. There will also be a series of LIDAR and associated systems workshop sessions available once again for delegates.
Janina Milner, first time exhibitor with Oxford Technical Solutions at ELMF said, “ELMF provided us with a great platform for showing our systems to key players in the industry. We were able to network with business partners, get feedback from existing customers and generate a great amount of promising sales leads. ELMF far exceeded our expectations and we’ll definitely re-book our stand for the 2012 conference.”
Whilst Adam Hill of Blue Marble Geographics commented that, “Bottom line – the ILMF has become and will continue to be the premier LIDAR conference event that all organizations in this industry must attend.”
If you would like to learn more please contact caroline.hobden@intelligentexhibitions.com or call +44 (0) 1453 836363 or from the US call (303) 332 5407 or go to www.lidarmap.org
About the LiDAR Mapping Forums
The International and European LiDAR Mapping Forums are the premier global events focused on applying the technology of LIDAR and laser scanning to deliver outside mapping and imaging solutions in a timely and cost-effective manner across a variety of markets. The core component of both events is the conference which introduces the latest concepts from commercial or academic research, leading edge innovations in technologies, improved operating practices, reports on actual project experiences and discusses new applications and markets being driven by the rapid improvements in LIDAR technology. During the conference the programme will focus on the use of LIDAR to support transport, urban modelling, coastal zone mapping, asset management and GIS applications. An international exhibition runs alongside the conferences with exhibitors involved in airborne, bathymetric and terrestrial LIDAR and mobile mapping systems, including system and component manufacturers, operators and service companies.