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Bringing together 3,883 attendees and 240 exhibiting organizations, the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s (USGIF) GEOINT 2017 Symposium gathered the global GEOINT Community to discuss opportunities and solve challenges.
GEOINT 2017, held June 4-7 at the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio TX, in the US was the 13th annual symposium. This year’s theme was ‘advancing capabilities to meet emerging threats’. The symposium focused on how next generation capabilities and processes such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, cloud computing, agile and enterprise acquisition efforts, object-based production and change detection – to name but a few – are shaping the face of intelligence analysis.
Among the attendees were 675 government and military personnel, including more than 200 representatives from the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). There was also strong international participation from 34 countries. Among this year’s attendees were 211 young professionals and 104 participants from academia.
The GEOINT 2017 general session included keynote addresses by leaders and experts such as NGA director Robert Cardillo, USTRANSCOM commander General Darren McDew, USSOUTHCOM commander Admiral Kurt Tidd, Defense Intelligence Agency director Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart, and authors Robert Scoble and Shel Israel.
The general session also included two panel discussions with members of the National and Allied Systems for Geospatial Intelligence discussing topics ranging from collaboration and trust to intelligence integration and the future of geoint.
The symposium also featured seven hours of programming on the Government Pavilion Stage in the exhibit hall, with senior leaders of federal agencies giving more detailed presentations open to general attendees and exhibitors alike.
There were 635 participants in GEOINT Foreword, the pre-symposium science and technology day that featured presentations from DARPA, IARPA, NGA Research, and four Department of Defense-sponsored University Affiliated Research Centers. GEOINT Foreword also included a series of GEOINT Engineering and Design (GED) Talks – which emulated the well-known TED Talks – and a live, virtual, constructive UAV demonstration.
GEOINT 2017 training, education and professional development offerings received considerable interest throughout the four-day event. USGIF offered 56 hours of training and education sessions, which were attended by 990 individuals looking to expand their knowledge and skills.
A highlight of GEOINT 2017 was a robust K-12 outreach programme, which introduced geoint to students from the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas, Girls Inc San Antonio, and the Boy Scouts of America Alamo Area Council through a variety of fun and educational activities.
In addition to other events, USGIF is already planning GEOINT 2018, which will be held April 22-25 at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa FL, US.
