AGI Hails Annual GeoCom Conference a Huge Success

Attracting around 250 registered delegates, and with support from all parts of the community, GeoCom 24, under the theme ‘Connecting Communities - the Geospatial Perspective’, was described by one participant as ‘the most interesting event I have attended in a very long time’.

GeoCom, which took place on the 28th November at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London, opened with a keynote presentation from Alexandra Notay. Representing the Geospatial Commission and Radix Big Tent Housing Commission, she spoke about geospatial story telling in the real estate arena. Giving examples of good outcomes, and not so good, she urged the audience to consider housing as an ecosystem. She was followed on stage by Stewart Pert of Ogi Broadband, and Natalie Stevens of Idox Geospatial, who discussed the challenges of supplying broadband in rural areas and how geospatial can inform decision making and support the planning process.

The final presentation of the first session was delivered by Professor Andrew Tatum, AGI award winner 2024, and co-founder of WorldPop, who explored the importance of small area population data. How to best ensure it is accurate, up-to-date, and as complete as possible, and examples of its application for vaccine roll-out programmes and flood impact modelling.

The second sitting of the day started with an insight into the potential of digital twins, by Mark Wells, CTO at Esri UK. He started his presentation with a look at how the world’s most favoured business analysis tool, Microsoft Excel, can indeed deliver geospatial information, before exploring the real power of geography in connecting the digital and physical environments. Another AGI Award Winner, Dr Egbe Manners of Ordnance Survey, then demonstrated the power of a new Emergency Services Gazetteer, and how this has been developed and evolved through engagement with frontline service providers.