The
conference turned out to be the biggest ever FIG annual
conference outside the quadrennial congresses. It attracted
more than 900 participants from about 80 countries.
The attendees got an excellent opportunity to familiarize
themselves with the history, trends in surveying and
SDIs for the future. In the technical programme more
than 400 papers, presentations and posters were made.
At the opening ceremony the keynote address from the
Government of Egypt was made by HE Dr.
Mahmoud Abu Zeid, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation.
The conference was held under the patronage of the Government
of Egypt and Prime Minister, Dr. Ahmed Nazif, who unfortunately
was unable to attend. The Prime Minister’s greeting
was given by Dr. Abu Zeid. The greeting from Dr. Tarek
Kamel, Minister of Communication and Information Technology
was presented by Dr. Hora Baraka. The welcome address
from the organising committee was given by Dr. Eng.
Ahmed Fouad El-Sheikh, Chair of the Organising Committee
and President of the Egyptian Committee on Surveying
and Mapping (ECSM). The GSDI presentation was given
by Dr. Mukund Rao, President of GSDI. The keynote opening
address was about the conference title “From Pharaohs
to Geoinformatics – Shaping the Change”
presented by Prof. Holger Magel, President of FIG, who
also formally opened the conference.
The professional quality of the plenary sessions attracted
many positive comments. Especially the first plenary
session, in which the presentations were made by Dr.
Ismail Serageldin, CEO of the Alexandria Library and
Mr. Jack Dangermond, President and Founder of ESRI and
Mrs. Preetha Pulusani, President of Intergraph Mapping
and Geospatial Solutions was highly praised. At the
other two plenary sessions the topics were Land Management
and SDIs (with Dr. Paul Munro-Faure (FAO), Dr. Clarissa
Augustinus (UN-Habitat), Ms. Dorine A. J. Burmanje,
Chair of the Board of Dutch Cadastre and Eng. Mohamed
Mosaad Ibrahim, Ex-Chairman, The Egyptian Survey Authority,
ESA as speakers) and on the Future of the SDI / Surveying
Communities (with Prof. Ian Dowman, President of ISPRS,
Prof. Hans Sünkel, Rector of the University of
Graz and Dr. Hisham El Sherif, Chairman of IT Investments
Group, Egypt as speakers).
The technical programme was fully integrated so there
were no separate programmes for GSDI or FIG delegates,
neither separation in the registrations etc. This allowed
more interesting and broader discussions at the technical
sessions than normally possible.
There was high-level participation from professionals.
Presidents of the following associations attended the
conference: ISPRS (Prof, Ian Dowman), IAG (Prof. Gerhard
Beutler), ICA (Prof. Milan Konecny), IHO (Vice Admiral
Alexandros Marathos) and ISM (Prof. Yu Changxing, immediate
past President). In addition, International Federation
of Hydrographic Societies was presented by John McCarthy
with whom FIG signed an Memorandum of Understanding
in Cairo. The International Steering Committee for Global
Mapping (ISCGM) had their annual meeting in Cairo and
had, in addition, two sessions in the technical programme,
chaired by Prof. Fraser Taylor, President of ISCGM.
The technical exhibition was bigger than has been the
case during the last years at the FIG events. More than
40 booths were booked and the list of exhibitors included
a good selection of international, regional and local
exhibitors.
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