The Group on Earth Observations – GEO Week Industry Track Support.
The Challenge
The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is an intergovernmental partnership of 105 Member governments, 127 Participating Organizations and thousands of passionate individuals and businesses that improves the availability, access and use of Earth observations (EO) for a more sustainable planet. GEO provides a unique forum where governments, businesses, the research community, non-profits, and all other groups come together to create solutions, share and cooperate. Each year they host a ‘GEO Week’ event, which historically has involved events for primarily government delegates, and in 2019 FrontierSI was asked to organise a series of events within the first ever GEO Industry Track, along with providing support to other events being organised by Australian and international organisations.
Partners
Geoscience Australia, the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) and the European Association for Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC).
The Solution
GEO Week 2019 hosted a broad range of EO innovators from around the world showcasing the latest in EO data and technology. This extensive and diverse collection of EO discussions created a great opportunity to gain a more detailed understanding on key issues and activities influencing the development of the sector. FrontierSI was honoured to have played a crucial role by facilitating, coordinating, and participating in the week-long event. As well as contributing to the overall industry track design, FrontierSI led the conception, design and implementation of several dedicated networking and education events.
The Australian/European Industry Forum was coordinated in partnership with EARSC and facilitated by FrontierSI CEO Graeme Kernich. Participants at the forum heard presentations highlighting new ideas and capabilities, providing updates on cutting-edge technology and their applications, whilst raising topical issues for discussion.
FrontierSI also coordinated an Asia-Oceania Industry @ GEO event. This lively session gave attendees an opportunity to better understand the rich Earth observation capabilities across the Asia-Oceania region, to become familiar with EO-relevant companies and their expertise, and to understand the current and potential markets, experiences, challenges, opportunities and approaches to doing business.
The Earth Observation End User Forum was facilitated by FrontierSI‘s Eva Rodriguez Rodriguez and intended to help companies create better products and services for both old and new customer markets. This had a dedicated section focused on creating a clear understanding of a wide range of end-user problems. End users took to the stage as attendees heard directly from key representatives of the Agriculture, Mining, Aquaculture, International Development Aid, and Banking sectors. They helped uncover pressing problems and needs, and attendees had the opportunity to participate in a live Q&A.
Impact
The Industry Track was a huge success and is now planned as an ongoing component of future GEO events.
GEO Week 2019 and the GEO Ministerial Summit clearly highlighted how investments in EO can deliver major returns on investment to our global economies and communities. FrontierSI was proud to have played a critical role in the week-long event which saw Ministers from GEO’s 105 Member governments, business leaders, heads of international non-profits and passionate experts on EO from across the globe descend on our capital city to discuss EO innovations and the latest in data and technology.
The End User Forum led to many useful insights for the spatial industry around how we can better serve businesses, highlighting that:
- EO has the potential to improve the speed and accuracy of insurance claims processing.
- EO has the potential to improve how remotely conducted activities are managed.
- There is a strong need for organisations to understand the available data so that they can better help their customers (particularly in insurance and finance).
- A barrier for the use of EO data is that these businesses aren’t fully aware of what exists and what’s possible.
- Spatial companies/governments who want to engage with industry should engage by approaching.
- The coordinating bodies within a given sector.
- Parent companies, who have more reach to ensure new tech and solutions are implemented across all companies they manage.
- Industry leaders.
- Spatial companies/governments who want to engage with industry should engage by approaching.
Contact
To learn more, contact FrontierSI at contact@frontiersi.com.au.