ESRI International User Conference 2004
San Diego 7-13 August 2004

2nd Survey Summit was a Big Success - FIG Receives Special Achievement Award in GIS

The 24th ESRI International User Conference gathered more than 13,000 participants to San Diego, California, USA from 9 to 13 August 2004. In the programme there were both plenary sessions, technical sessions on case studies, development of the software but also of more political issues on the use of GIS. The theme of this year's conference was "GIS - the language of geography". The main keynote presentations were given by Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI and Dr. Rita R. Colwell, one of the leading experts in global infectious diseases. ESRI is one of the corporate members of FIG.

One of this year's awards "Special Achievement in GIS" was given to FIG for bridging the gap between surveying and GIS. In the written explanation FIG was awarded because it "has worked diligently in cooperation with ESRI to help Bridge The Gap between surveying and GIS professionals. FIG supported and sponsored the inaugural Survey & GIS Summit in 2003. In addition, FIG Commissions 2, 3, 7, 8, and 10 involve the direct relationship between surveying and GIS. FIG and ESRI established a grant program that provided software, valued at over $15.6 million, to 49 universities worldwide. The goal of ESRI and FIG Grant Program was to foster and support the integration of GIS technology in engineering and surveying colleges and universities worldwide - particularly in the developing world. The program was established to assist colleges and universities in teaching students the latest in technologies for surveying and engineering applications. University software licenses and technical support were granted to 17 universities in the United States and 32 universities from the following countries: Costa Rica, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Botswana, Cameroon, Czech Republic, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Fiji Islands, Kenya, Lithuania, Nicaragua, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, Zambia and Zimbabwe. FIG also supports education and development through the FIG Foundation. The goal of the FIG Foundation is to help build a sustainable future, especially in developing countries, through grants and scholarships in support of curricula development, research activities, and distance learning. A major component of this is in GIS."

FIG attended the User Conference in the exhibition together with ACSM, FIG member association in the United States. The main reason for FIG participation in San Diego was, however, the Survey and GIS Summit 2004 - Bridging the Gap, which was held for the second time. FIG was one of the partners of ESRI in organising this event. More than 450 participants from 26 countries attended this year - increase of more than 150 from  the first meeting last year. In the Summit programme the keynote was given by Charles Challstrom, Director, National Geodetic Survey (NGS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Charlie is also a former Vice President of FIG. The two-day programme offered several presentations that described the need to bridge the gap between surveying and GIS and also ways how to proceed on this way. The enthusiasm of the participants is promising good for the future of these summits. After the two-day separate seminars the participants were able to attend the ESRI User Conference were the survey/GIS had its own track in the programme.

Several FIG member associations attended the Summit and User Conference including participants from e.g. Colombia, Cyprus, Germany, Ghana, Spain, Serbia etc. Read more about the Survey and GIS Summit at: www.esri.com/events/survey/index.html