Great interest in the international conference
The event organized by Kartverket (The Norwegian Mapping Authority), held over 3 days and attracted 491 registrations from 51 countries. The conference was focused on how geospatial information can contribute to digital transformation.
The conference programme featured many international high-profiled speakers, such as Gregory Scott of the United Nations Statistics Division, Kathrine Kelm of the World Bank and Léa Bodossian, Secretary General of Eurogeographics.
Johnny Welle, Director General of Kartverket, and Dr. John Mikal Kvistad, Norway’s Ambassador to Central Asia, opened the conference with their welcome addresses.
During the past 20 years, the Norwegian Mapping Authority has been implementing a range of capacity development projects in Eastern Europe, West Balkans, Central Asia and other regions with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This capacity development has been focused on the establishment of national spatial data infrastructures, delivery of core geospatial datasets, building-up technical and professional capacity, contributing to economic growth and supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.
Digital transformation
This year’s conference was focused on the interpretation of geographical data for digital transformation.
– We wanted to highlight our international cooperation activities and what we in Kartverket have achieved together with our partners, with funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition to showing projects’ results in our partner countries, we wanted to look at the future and what lies in the digital transformation, says leader of Global Geodesy, Hans Christian Munthe-Kaas
Every autumn since 2016, we have usually held a physical conference hosted by one of our partner countries, to share what we have learned and celebrate success. As a result of COVID-19, we were forced to cancel the 2020 event.
It was nice to be able this year to move back towards normality with this hybrid conference, by which as well as those connected from home or office settings we had groups met in person in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Kiev, Ukraine and in Oslo.
– This is an exciting form of conference, where we reach a much wider audience than what we have done at previous conferences, says Munthe-Kaas.
Watch the conference in recordings
Day 1: Welcoming addresses by Jonny Welle, CEO Kartverket and Dr. John Mikal Kvistad, Norwegian Ambassador, Central Asia, were followed by thought provoking presentations by Lea Bodossian (EuroGeographics) on EU Accession, Robin McLaren on the future of NMAs and Haico van der Vegt on integration of key registers. A keynote on the IGIF from Greg Scott (United Nations) and the World Bank IGIF implementation methodology by Kathrine Kelm followed. The afternoon session focused on IGIF case studies covering of on-going work in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Ukraine. The day wrapped up with a policy focused panel session led by John Kedar.
Presentations from day 1 (PDF)
Day 2 focused on Societal benefits. The morning featured world leading experts such as Steve Ramage (GEO), spatial economist Alan Smart and location ethics champion Denise McKenzie. Best practice case studies from Norway, Croatia and Poland wrapped up the morning. The afternoon featured Gavin Adlington on Fit-for-Purpose land administration, NSDI implementation success in Serbia, drones in disaster management, and collaboration in Moldova. A panel, expertly chaired by Rumyana Tonchovska (FAO) provided great advice on implementation challenges.
Presentations from day 2 (PDF)
Day 3 chaired by Astrid Hvattum (Geodata Norway) looked to the future with a keynote on Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure by Dr. Lesley Arnold, followed by insights from Esri, Planet Labs and EARSC. The afternoon session featured presentations on spatial finance, GeoAI and hybrid acquisition techniques.
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