The Inspire 2014 Conference, to be held in Aalborg, Denmark, 16-20 June 2014 is only a month away. The annual Inspire conferences relate to the ‘Infrastructure of Spatial Information in the European Community’, INSPIRE directive (2007/2/EC) which entered into force on 15 May 2007. The event brings together users, technology developers, data providers and policymakers from across the European Union.
This year’s conference, ‘INSPIRE for Governance’, will host some 30 workshops, 5 plenary sessions, and around 200 presentations in parallel sessions, a poster session and exhibition. The first 2 days will be hosted at Aalborg University, on 16 and 17 June.
These are followed by 3 days of plenary presentations, parallel sessions, poster sessions and exhibition at the Aalborg Conference Centre on 18-20 June. The full programme is available on the INSPIRE 2014 Conference site.
Inspire is completing its formative period, and like children at school now has to pass its mid-term exams, the conference organisation states. The Member States have provided their view on the implementation of the Directive, a public consultation was launched in 2013, together with an independent assessment of progress. These and other related evidence on the costs, benefits, and impacts of INSPIRE are being consolidated in a mid-term evaluation report. The draft report will be presented and debated at the conference in the Plenary ‘INSPIRE at a crossroads?’ on Thursday providing an excellent occasion for all the participants to help its finalisation before submission to the European Parliament and Council.