This year was the 7th year of Smart Geospatial Expo. The Smart Geospatial Expo 2014 was successfully held at Seoul, Republic of Korea, from August 25 to 27. Under the slogan of ‘Geospatial Information in every life, Valuable Asset for the future’, the international event gave the experts of Geospatial information from around the world a chance to share and discuss current global trends of Geospatial information industry and create a new business opportunity. Let’s have a glimpse at its diverse programs including Industrial Exhibition that featured 100 booths, High-level Forum in which 19 countries participated, Recruit Hall and Business Startup Education and so on.
In Industrial Exhibition planned for the general public to be able to experience industrial technologies easily, I was able to meet high-tech geospatial information technology mixed with Information Communication Technology (ICT). In particular, various geospatial information-related hands-on systems were very popular, including 1) ‘Indoor Navigation’ whose service is first provided among Korea’s exhibition halls, 2) ‘Special Big Data Hall’ which reveals new values through the convergence of various information such as geospatial information and 3) smart vending machine with the Internet of things-related technology and Smart Glass (wearable augmented reality device).
This year, visitors were able to locate their position and check exhibition halls and booth information through a 3D indoor map after downloading ‘Indoor Navigation’ app. If wanted, a specific direction to the target booth was provided. In addition, diverse cases were explained as visual data through the analysis of public administration services and geospatial big data in a private sector. Especially, SK Telecom provided free consulting on the analysis of business district using the geospatial big data technology, drawing a great attention from those who were planning to launch their business.
During the Smart Geospatial Expo 2014, International Conference on Geospatial Information Science (IC-GIS) in which the world’s leading geospatial information scholars gather, diagnose the latest issues in geospatial information and exchange academic information was held as well. At the geospatial information conference which was held under the theme of ‘Big Data Technology for a Future Society and Its Utilization’, participants discussed the latest technologies of ‘geospatial big data’ and their utilization. In particular, this international event drew great applause from the businesses which were aimed to create a business model using the geospatial information.
During the Smart Geospatial Expo 2014, ‘High-level Forum’ in which high-rank officials in geospatial information from 19 countries including Korea, Uzbekistan, Turkey and Uruguay participated was also held. This year was the 3rd year of the international event.
There were ‘Pre Working-level Meeting’, ‘Policy Presentation Session’ and ‘Business Presentation & Meeting’. The business presentation was delivered by domestic geospatial information firms for foreign government delegates. At ‘High-level Meeting’ on the last day of the Smart Geospatial Expo 2014, there were detailed and extensive discussions on international collaboration in geospatial information. During the ‘High-level Meeting’, in particular, a joint declaration on ‘Detailed Execution Plan (Draft) for Development of Experts in Spatial Information and Promotion of International Cooperation’ which was enacted at the ‘Pre Working-level Meeting’ was adopted. This year’s declaration specified the implementation plan which agrees upon the necessity of fostering experts in geospatial information and sharing professional knowledge. For example, the declaration includes ‘sharing educational materials through the online network’, ‘promotion of invitational training programs’ and ‘organization of a working group to implement the adopted declaration and discuss agendas.
