Dr Kenneth Field and Alexandra Notay to Headline at AGI GeoCom Conference

London, 12 November 2024 – The Association for Geographic Information, the membership group for organisations and individuals working in geospatial, has published the full agenda for its annual conference. Featuring self-confessed ‘cartonerd’ Dr Kenneth Field, and Alexandra Notay, an expert on housing, placemaking and ESG, as keynote speakers, this year’s event promises ‘something for everyone’.

Vida Williams, Geospatial Lead and Reading Office Lead at Jacobs, and AGI Council Member commented, “I’ve got a strong interest in how geospatial benefits lives and communities. It is therefore inspiring to see different companies, organisations and public bodies, come together to realise those benefits, and it has been a pleasure to be part of the working group behind this year’s event.

“By exploring content ranging from digital twins for climate resilience, to world population mapping and role of AI in spatial modelling, this year’s programme truly has something for everyone.”

Dr Kenneth Field, an academic cartographer and geographer who now works at Esri in research and development, will explore the role of maps in Trust, Ethics and Politics in his keynote address, whilst Alexandra Notay, Independent Commissioner of the UK Geospatial Commission and Chair of the Radix Big Tent Housing Commission, will be sharing her advisory and investment experience within the real estate, planning and social housing sectors across four continents.

Also joining the exciting line up of speakers are Alanna Gluck and Dr Elliot Christou of Connected Places Catapult who will showcase how the Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) is helping address real-world cross-sector challenges to build resilience in critical national infrastructure systems against extreme weather challenges. Professor Flora Samuel will present the Public Maps Project, an inclusive map-based planning system, and Asher Kessler, of London School of Economics will ‘Collapse Space’ from the 1990’s to present day.

The flagship event for the UK geo sector, GeoCom 24 will take place on the 28th November 2024 at the prestigious Royal Geographic Society (with IBG) in London. Tickets are now available to purchase online (https://www.agi.org.uk/geocom/) with prices starting at just £25 for eligible students and AGI members can achieve a discount on list prices of more than 30%.

Other speakers already announced under the conference theme ‘Connecting Communities – the Geospatial Perspective’, are Professor Andrew Tatem, AGI award winner for Excellence with Impact for his work with World Population, and Dr Egbe Manners, Product Manager at Ordnance Survey and AGI Geospatial Professional of the Year, who will demonstrate her work to create and launch the Emergency Services Gazetteer. Jade Saunders, Executive Director of World Forest ID, will also be presenting on the use of AI-enabled spatial models to understand the source of location traded products

The AGI would also like to recognise City Science, Esri UK and IDOX, as Platinum event sponsors, ARKANCE, Avineon Tensing Europe, Bluesky International, CGI, GIS Jobs and Verisk as Gold, and Cadcorp, Dalcour Maclaren and LANDCLAN, as Silver, for their support.