The organisers for the upcoming European and International LiDAR Mapping Forums have announce the dates for both events. The European LiDAR Mapping Forum (ELMF) will return to Salzburg in Austria from 4-5 December 2012, and the International LiDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF) returning to Denver, Colorado in the US from February 11-13, 2013.
It is a welcome return to Salzburg for ELMF. After it moved there in 2011 from The Hague in the Netherlands, the new venue earned so much positive feedback from visitors and exhibitors alike that the organisers were delighted to return there for a second year.
“We have been overwhelmed by delegates telling us how wonderful the venue was last year in Salzburg,” aaid director of ELMF, Versha Carter. “The open-plan layout of the Congress building brought everyone together and was well-liked by delegates and exhibitors.
“Salzburg’s central location in Europe may have contributed to the increase in visitors from Eastern Europe, which is an important consideration for next year’s venue. Salzburg also provided a special dimension with its Christmas markets that delegates were able to enjoy, as well as the drinks reception on the opening night, which was very popular for networking.”
There were over 445 attendees from 40 different countries and interestingly, there were almost twice as many visitors from Eastern Europe as the first event.
Across the water in the States, ILMF set a new record for attendees in January this year, when 773 professionals from 29 different countries turned up for the 12th annual event. This proved once again that LIDAR, in its increasing variety of operational formats, is becoming the technology of choice for fast, accurate and quality geospatial data acquisition. Whether supporting highly detailed 3D urban mapping projects, forestry management, or railroad and power transmission line maintenance programs, LIDAR technology delivers the results needed by today’s demanding geospatial and mapping professionals.
Conference chairman of both events, Alastair MacDonald of TMS International, believes each event produces conference programmes that represent a thriving community: “The quality of the papers presented at both events was outstanding. The highly positive reaction to the topics from the delegates, which included many newcomers as end-users of LIDAR data, showed how important and relevant the chosen subjects were to the fast growing LIDAR community.”
In the coming weeks, the organisers will be launching a Call for Papers for both events. Prospective authors will be able to submit their abstracts online, all of which will be peer reviewed by the Technical Committee of leading industry experts from across the spectrum of the LIDAR community. Both programmes will be announced later this year.
Running alongside both conferences will once again be the major exhibitions with more than 50 leading companies expected who will demonstrate new LIDAR products and a wide range of new technologies and services. Exhibitors historically include the LIDAR and complementary sensor manufacturers, survey service companies, data processing, GIS and management specialists and the latest mobile mapping vehicles. There will also be a series of LIDAR and associated systems workshop sessions available once again for delegates.
If you would like to learn more please contact caroline.hobden@intelligentexhibitions.com or call +44 (0) 1453 836363 or go to www.lidarmap.org.
