The joint organizers of Global Geospatial Conference 2012 are delighted to announce Dr. Gilberto Câmara (Brazil), Dr. Prashant Shukle (Canada), Dr. Michael Goodchild (US) and Dr. Abbas Rajabifard (Australia) as featured keynote speakers at the upcoming May conference.

Dr. Gilberto Câmara is General Director of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and will address the topic of Global Visions in Sharing Geospatial Data and Tools and Progress in Their Achievement. Dr. Camara is being honored as well with a Global Citizen Award for his staunch support and highly influential global leadership in opening citizen access to governments’ environmental and geospatial data across the planet.

Dr. Prashant Shukle, Director General of the Mapping Information Branch of Natural Resources Canada, will highlight substantial innovations employed and advancements made in spatially enabling Canadian government services and providing access for businesses and citizens.

Dr. Michael Goodchild, member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Director of the University of California-Santa Barbara’s Center for Spatial Studies, will provide a personal perspective on topics raised at the conference and topics drawn from his over forty years in supporting and observing advancements in the field.

Dr. Abbas Rajabifard, Chair of the Department of Infrastructure Engineering at The University of Melbourne and President of the GSDI Association, will open the conference with an address on Visions for Spatially Enabling Government, Industry and Citizens.

GGC 2012 will take place at the Québec City Convention Center from May 14-17, 2012. This conference combines the GSDI World Conference (GSDI 13), 14th GEOIDE Annual Scientific Conference, Canadian Geomatics Conference (CGC 2012) and the 7th 3D GeoInfo Conference. In addition to the keynotes, the conference has a full slate of corporate sponsors, the exhibit space is sold out, a full program of technical and plenary sessions will be presented, additional poster and industry showcase sessions will be highlighted and the social events have all been booked.

We congratulate titanium sponsor Tecterra, platinum sponsor Esri/Esri Canada and all of the other sponsors, exhibitors, and speakers that promise to make the conference a great success. Come join your professional, government, industry and academic peers in beautiful Quebec City in May 2012!