September: the month of conferences!

As I write this I'm on a Lufthansa A320 heading back from Nuremberg feeling absolutely exhausted. September has been a busy month for us with the majority of the major conferences taking place around this time of the year. Here's what I've been up to!

Addresses, architecture and answers
The month started with a trip to the swanky new Ordnance Survey HQ in Southampton. The OS Insight event that was being held there is where the OS showcase their new products and get feedback from the reseller and partner community (that's us!). At this event they showed us a preview of what everyone now knows as AddressBase, the new addressing product that supersedes the NLPG, AL2 and PAF.

This event answered many of the questions surrounding addressing so was a very useful event. With this insider information and test data our team of developers got started on integrating the new product into our District Online and Parish Online product. We also took the opportunity to add a number of new filters that will greatly assist our Local Authority customers. We expect this to be rolled out in the next week or so meaning that our Web GIS users remain up-to-date with their PSMA datasets.

Satellites, sensors and science
The following week saw me down in Bournemouth for the Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc) Annual Conference. I've been a member of this society for a good few years now and the annual conference is a great event full of brilliant scientists and professionals delivering interesting and thought-provoking presentations. The highlight for me was Dr Robert Bindschadler's (NASA) talk on the use of Remote Sensing in analysis of the Antarctic. It was a great insight into the work he has done over the last 25 years. Now it doesn't really affect my day-to-day job as there isn't really a need for Web Mapping services on the most Southern part of this Earth (yet!), but it's great to see what others are doing in my field of interest; namely Remote Sensing and GIS.

As for the rest of the event, many new interesting leads and connections were made that will affect how Getmapping's products and services will form in the future... all very exciting stuff! I would highly recommend becoming a member of RSPSoc as it gives you the opportunity to interact with such an amazing group of people. My only fear for next years conference (in Greenwich) is I'll inevitably get dragged into taking part in the Ceilidh. Spoons at the ready! (inside joke, sorry!).

Geo-geeks, Twitter and Surfing
Before I knew it anther week was over and I found myself (geographically, not philosophically) in Nottingham for another big event, the Association of Geographic Information (AGI) GeoCommunity annual conference. This is the largest collection of GI professionals in the UK you're ever likely to find. It was great to catch up with friends, colleagues and also find new possibilities and areas that our Web GIS products could be used.

This year was interesting due to the ever-increasing use of twitter during the conference. #geocom was heavily used and I found myself drawn in to the silent discussion undercurrent over the twittersphere whilst presentations were taking place (@GetmappingChris). Some were serious points, some were questions and some were light-hearted jokes, but it was all an added media experience I enjoyed. The biggest twitter uproar was the flagrant use of Google Maps during an Ordnance Survey presentation; something the die-hard cartographers were shocked at (including me I might add)!

So my highlight (apart from the notebook full of leads and techy ideas) was Kimberly Kowal's (Lead Curator for the British Library) presentation, a cartographic tour de force of stunning visuals, historic mapping and geeky nuggets of knowledge. My lowlight, well, there are two. The first being that my house is now FULL of conference paraphernalia; notebooks, magazines, flyers, pens, hemp bags, postcards and print outs! The second, my shock and horror as I realise that whilst talking to someone on my right at dinner, my (rather delicious) starter had been whisked away without having the chance to finish it! The only consolation to this... seeing my colleague fail spectacularly on the surf machine at the evening party! Fortunately he remained unharmed and is currently busy coding features in District Online!

Parishes, PSMA and the Ordnance Survey
As I headed to Heathrow for the next part of my September, my colleagues were holding a Parish Online event in Hook. This was to generate interest in our Parish mapping tool for Clerks and Councillors to help them manage their Parish more easily.

With our 30 day free trial still running we're seeing new Parishes sign up every day. This is brilliant news as we really believe in the power of mapping to assist in the Parish Clerk's work.

With the PSMA allowing Parishes a licence for OS maps, Parish Online is established as an essential tool for viewing and using the mapping data without needing professional GIS software. We're also happy to hear that the Ordnance Survey see Parish Online as a great way for Public Sector bodies to use mapping in an intelligent and easy way. I will have more news on Parish Online in the weeks to come as we continue to improve it based on feedback from our customers and new leads from the previous conferences.

Bratwurst, weißbeer and sunshine
Now by the title to this you would assume I spent the week in Germany relaxing outside with a beer and fine Bavarian cuisine? Well not quite! I was at Intergeo, one of the largest exhibitions I've ever been to! We had a stand and were able to showcase our Web GIS (District Online and Parish Online) as well as our European aerial survey operations and data streaming services. We also had the chance to catch up with companies that we've been working with recently, such as Cyclomedia. Our collaboration to add Cyclomedia street-level imagery into District Online has been a great success in its current beta-guise.

As for Germany as a whole, I love it and have spent quite a lot of time there in the past so it was nice to reacquaint myself with fantastic food and drink and the occasional bit of sunshine (when I managed to escape the conference centre!). At least the great weather over Europe has been keeping our Flight Operations department busy!

So that was my September! October looks to be busy too with the PSMA roadshow that we'll be taking part in. Hopefully I'll have time in between to clear up my house!
Thanks for reading and look out for me and my colleagues at the London, Nottingham, Cardiff and Manchester shows!