2015 Surveying and Mapping Conference

NSPS has received a lot of feedback on four major points: (1) there is a need for NSPS to resume a national surveying and mapping conference, (2) there is too much of a proliferation of conferences in the geospatial community (3) a national conference should compliment, not compete with or duplicate, continuing education provided by state surveying societies, and (4) there is a need for a exhibit hall opportunity that crosses disciplines and is not tied to a specific company.

I am pleased to announce that NSPS, in cooperation with MAPPS, the national association of private sector geospatial firms, ) will host “Collaboration: The Map to the Future” - A national surveying and mapping conference.  This special event will be April 13-16 at the Hilton Hotel in Crystal City (Arlington), VA.
The overall conference will serve as an umbrella to include plenary sessions, an exhibit hall, and social/networking activities designed to create synergy among the many vertical segments (technical disciplines, applications, and sectors) of the surveying, mapping and geospatial community.  It will also feature a “conference within a conference” format in which participating organizations will hold their own meetings and conference sessions.

For NSPS members, the conference will feature our student competition, meetings of NSPS committees and our governing body, and, on Wednesday, April 15, NSPS members, together with MAPPS, will be on Capitol Hill visiting some 200 Congressmen and Senators advancing a common agenda of legislative issues that serve the public and engage the surveying and mapping community.

Also on the program will be symposia by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Geospatial Management Office (GMO) of the Department of Homeland Security.
In the coming days, we will be launching a special website, surveyingandmapping.net,  that will be the forum for information, registration and other details on the conference.  We will let you know when that site is operational.

This conference will bring together all sectors, stakeholders, constituents, and levels of government in the surveying, mapping, and geospatial field.  It will be a forum for a discussion of issues and policies, sharing of information and provision of education, and collaboration on data acquisition, processing, applications and the employment of new and emerging technology, as well as new markets.

The conference will be “vendor-neutral”.  It will focus on collaboration between government and the private sector, as well as among various governmental entities at all levels, and the introduction of new technology (GPS, GNSS, LIDAR, BIM, Mobile Mapping, Cloud Computing, UAVs, etc.) to facilitate those collaborations.

The Hilton-Crystal City Hotel is conveniently located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.  It is within walking distance of the Metro system and is near Ronald Reagan National Airport.  This will enable easy local transfers from the airport (or Amtrak station in Alexandria, VA or Union Station in Washington) and will provide for easy access to Capitol Hill for members’ Congressional visits.
Mark your calendar and plan to attend this exciting event.  We will keep you informed as more details are unveiled.

Sincerely,

Curtis W. Sumner LS

NSPS Executive Director