We’re currently looking to bolster the SIG committee particularly with representatives from utilities. As well as developing and promoting best practice and relevant standards the SIG also organises events to share experience and provide networking opportunities. A key role therefore of committee members is to arrange and participate in these events including identifying industry hot topics, venues, speakers etc.

If you’re interested in joining the SIG committee please contact Mark Belliss (mark.belliss@bt.com) for more details and how to apply.

The AGI is pleased to announce that delegate bookings can now be taken for this year's AGI GeoCommunity Conference. Once again we are using the industry standard online booking system Regonline which has served us very well in previous years.

Delegate prices remain very attractive and excellent value. In addition to the range of booking options available last year a limited number of 'Premium Packages' have been made available which include accomodation in a local 4 star hotel.

This year’s AGI Annual Conference - AGI GeoCommunity '12: Sharing the Power of Place - will be held in Nottingham on the 18 – 20 September 2012. This is the 6th year of the AGI GeoCommunity format and the second year at the centrally located conference venue – East Midlands Conference Centre.

Those seeking to get more details and access the online booking system can do so HERE.

More about AGI GeoCommunity

AGI GeoCommunity is the largest and most comprehensive independent conference in the UK digital mapping and geospatial calendar. The conference provides real insight and leadership in current geographic information and location based issues via a range of keynote addresses and conference papers as well as by hands on training and face to face delegate networking.

The AGI GeoCommunity series has a proven reputation as a 'must-attend' event for a range of service delivery managers and information management and technology professionals. Previous delegates and speakers have been drawn from Central and Local Government, Utilities, Health, Emergency Services, Infrastructure, Insurance, Marketing, Business Intelligence, Finance and Technology sectors.

AGI GeoCommunity '12 will open on the 18th September with the popular pre-conference 'Icebreaker' evening event and offer two full days of thought leadership, practical education, knowledge transfer and real world best practice and case studies.

AGI GeoCommunity ‘11 attracted 450 delegates. The residential format, introduced in 2007, is now well established and the event has proven its growth and sustainability. Feedback from last year’s delegates indicated that 97% of those polled thought the event offered value for money and 89% felt it fulfilled their expectations. 97% said the venue was ‘good’ or ‘excellent. A full report of delegate feedback is available on the AGI website.

AGI GeoCommunity '12 will also offer a select number of sponsorship spaces to showcase new products and services and network with delegates both at the sponsors' exhibition pods and in the conference sessions and social events. Prices are frozen for existing sponsorship packages and a new category has been created for Small Business and Education Members, plus companies that are AGI members can get additional booking discounts. The conference format will offer our sponsors an unrivalled opportunity to meet and network with the key practitioners and influencers across government and the commercial sectors.

This year’s AGI Annual Conference - AGI GeoCommunity '12: Sharing the Power of Place - will be held in Nottingham on the 18 – 20 September 2012. This is the 6th year of the AGI GeoCommunity format and the second year at the centrally located conference venue – East Midlands Conference Centre.

Every year a conference committee formed mainly of volunteer AGI members (dubbed the 'Conference Action Working Group', or 'AWG' for short) works very closely with AGI staff to deliver an event focused on the needs of the ‘geocommunity’. With a diverse background and interests the committee is well placed to produce a varied and compelling conference programme. AWG members also 'staff' the conference when it is being run.

This year’s committee is headed up for a second time by Conference Chair Jeremy Morley, Theme Leader in Geospatial Science in the Nottingham Geospatial Institute. He is a veteran of three previous AGI GeoCommunity conferences as an AWG member.

Jeremy is joined by the following members that make up the Conference AWG:

1. Mark Percival – Essex Fire & Rescue
2. Andrew Newman – UK Location Programme
3. Peter Yard – Pitney Bowes Business Insight
4. Emma Bee - British Geological Survey
5. Will White – Esri UK
6. Jermiane Hutchinson – Environment Agency
7. Nick Austin – London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games
8. Simon Agass – Welsh Government
9. Claire Huppertz - AGI
10. Alan Wilks - AGI
11. Chris Holcroft - AGI

More about AGI GeoCommunity

AGI GeoCommunity is the largest and most comprehensive independent conference in the UK digital mapping and geospatial calendar. The conference provides real insight and leadership in current geographic information and location based issues via a range of keynote addresses and conference papers as well as by hands on training and face to face delegate networking.

The AGI GeoCommunity series has a proven reputation as a 'must-attend' event for a range of service delivery managers and information management and technology professionals. Previous delegates and speakers have been drawn from Central and Local Government, Utilities, Health, Emergency Services, Infrastructure, Insurance, Marketing, Business Intelligence, Finance and Technology sectors.

AGI GeoCommunity '12 will open on the 18th September with the popular pre-conference 'Icebreaker' evening event and offer two full days of thought leadership, practical education, knowledge transfer and real world best practice and case studies.

AGI GeoCommunity ‘11 attracted 450 delegates. The residential format, introduced in 2007, is now well established and the event has proven its growth and sustainability. Feedback from last year’s delegates indicated that 97% of those polled thought the event offered value for money and 89% felt it fulfilled their expectations. 97% said the venue was ‘good’ or ‘excellent. A full report of delegate feedback is available on the AGI website.

AGI GeoCommunity '12 will also offer a select number of sponsorship spaces to showcase new products and services and network with delegates both at the sponsors' exhibition pods and in the conference sessions and social events. Prices are frozen for existing sponsorship packages and a new category has been created for Small Business and Education Members, plus companies that are AGI members can get additional booking discounts. The conference format will offer our sponsors an unrivalled opportunity to meet and network with the key practitioners and influencers across government and the commercial sectors.

The delegate booking system and sponsor opportunities will be opened shortly.

As you probably know, AGI recently moved its office.    The new office at 150 Minories, London EC3N 1LS is one of a number of serviced offices within a Business Centre.   It is a pleasant building, close to Aldgate Tube station, within walking distance of Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street stations and handily placed for public transport by bus, tube and rail.

Within the Business Centre at 150 Minories, there is a range of meeting rooms which AGI is now pleased to be able to offer to AGI members at extremely competitive rates for your meetings. 

Facilities include:

The onsite service team will greet you and your delegates and show them

personally to your room. Meeting co-ordinators are on hand throughout the day to ensure your meeting runs smoothly.  And the AGI team will be available, both before the event and on the day, to assist with any queries you may have.

Charges to AGI members (excluding VAT) are as follows:

(a day is defined as running from 9am to 5pm)

All rooms have wi-fi and phone conferencing facilities; the larger rooms have a flat-screen TV for projection and a computer with internet access; Room 9 has video conferencing facilities. A projector is available free of charge upon request – subject to availability.

Two servings of tea and coffee are provided free per day.  Water is charged at £2.50 per opened bottle.

Further catering is available from £6.00 per person for a platter of sandwiches to £13.50 per person for a full array of sandwiches and canapés. All can be arranged through the AGI.

If required, AGI can also offer meeting rooms at competitive rates at other Business Environment office locations throughout London and in some other cities in Southern England.

If you want to request meeting space, please contact Carle Baxter in the first instance to check availability.   (carle.baxter@agi.org.uk, 020 7347 5644)

We believe that this provides meeting space to AGI members at a cost that cannot be obtained elsewhere in London for similar facilities.  We are pleased to be able to offer this service to our members.

A copy of this note can be found and printed off HERE.

• AGI Council welcome its new and reappointed member, Chris Ewing, Gary Gale, David Henderson and Anne Kemp.
• Election of officers: John Marshall, Chair; Anne Kemp, SVC; David Henderson, JVC; Andrew Trigg, Honorary Treasurer; Angela Baker, Honorary Secretary.
• The 2012 budget was approved.
• The 2012 Operational Plan was approved as a working document. This will focus on key membership items.

The AGI and the UK Location Programme would like to gauge the effect of the Programme and of the EU’s INSPIRE Directive on the COMMERCIAL side of our industry.

Although INSPIRE applies specifically to public authorities that provide environmental information with a spatial element, it is clear that the rest of the GI industry may be affected to a greater or lesser extent. This will include software suppliers, services providers, and consultants.

This follows a smaller poll of UK based companies that have registered as ‘Spatial Data Interest Communities’ for the INSPIRE Directive, that was carried out by Ian Masser and Robin Waters and presented at the AGI conference in September. See: http://www.agi.org.uk/past-events/2011/9/22/agi-geocommunity-11-presentations.html. There certainly appeared to be some positive correlation between active participation in INSPIRE implementation and enhanced business opportunities in both the UK and the rest of Europe.

The UK Location Programme (responsible for implementing the UK Location Strategy which incorporates the EU INSPIRE Directive) and the UK Location User Group both expressed interest in the results and backed the idea of extending the survey to all AGI commercial members. Subsequently the AGI’s INSPIRE working group also endorsed an extension of the survey.

Please spend a few minutes completing this questionnaire and thank you for your interest. Further details of the UK Location Programme can be found at www.location.defra.gov.uk

PLEASE NOTE: This questionnaire is NOT INTENDED for public bodies. Any responses from such sources will not be taken into account. Thank you for your understanding.

To access the questionnaire please click HERE.

This event is now fully booked

Open to AGI members and non-members

Since its launch in May 2011 over 900 datasets and 100 services have been registered with the UK Location discovery service at data.gov.uk. Around a quarter of these datasets have been published to meet the requirements of INSPIRE for Annex I & II. In 2012 we would like to see a much broader range of data published and INSPIRE requires data providers for Annex I & II to launch download services.

The UK Location Programme and AGI would like to invite anyone who is publishing or considering publishing data to UK Location to attend a 1 day workshop in at the AGI offices in London on 9th February 2011.

This free event will provide you with an opportunity to:
• Celebrate what’s been achieved so far
• Find out about how people are using the services
• Learn about download services
• Get to grips with data interoperability looking at the INSPIRE data specs and transformation options
For more information contact the UK Location Programme (uklocation.helpdesk@defra.gsi.gov.uk) or check the UK Location website.

For the official announcement on this see: http://www.buyingsolutions.gov.uk/news/details.html?id=598

The AGI is interested to know what implications these changes may have for GI Systems & Service Suppliers and will be seeking further information.