The OGC Canada Forum is back! Scheduled on June 17 and 18, the Forum invites you to join us in person or remotely to contribute to the Canadian Geospatial Community. All Canadian organizations and those operating in Canada are welcome to participate, whether members or non-members of OGC.
The Forum aims to boost collaboration among stakeholders to address Canada’s geospatial needs by focusing on capacity building, innovation, standards and economic growth. Attendees can expect discussions on current and future geospatial issues potentially affecting the overall community and assisting in planning ways to overcome issues.
This event will be held at the Centre Mont-Royal in the Mont-Royal II room. For online attendees, sessions will be streamed via GoToMeeting. Please log in here to obtain the meeting link. Please note, all sessions will be recorded except for the Debate on June 18 from 11:00 to 11:30, which will follow the Chatham House Rule.
This event is free, but registration is required. For any inquiries, please contact us at membership@ogc.org.
Agenda:
| Eastern Time | Monday, June 17 | Speakers |
|---|---|---|
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Opening and the Forum Overview An overview of the 2024 Canada Forum agenda and then delve into the history, progress, future priorities of the forum, and key issues that are important for the Canadian community moving forward. | Cameron Wilson, Project Manager, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) |
| 11:30 – 12:30 | Featuring a Panel: National Geospatial Strategy in a Time of Rapid Change and Growing Challenges This panel will explore how national geospatial strategies and spatial data infrastructure needs to mature and evolve to ensure that geospatial data and information in Canada continues to drive economic growth across sectors, provide vital insights to respond to challenges (e.g., emergencies, climate change) and inform policy priorities. With massive research and industry driven technological change, and social imperatives (e.g., Indigenous data sovereignty), how do we grow a rich collaborative environment to evolve Canada’s SDI? What are the roles/contributions of the range of partners that comprise Canada’s spatial data infrastructure? What are the prospects for SDI modernization? Panelists will be asked to provide their perspectives on the many opportunities and challenges on the horizon. | Moderator: Claudine Couture, Deputy Director, Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure – Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Panelists Eric Loubier, Director General – Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Bradford Dean, GIS Manager – Mohawk Council of Kahnawake Linda van den Brink, Geo-Information Standardization Advisor, Geonovum Eldrich Frazier, Senior Advisor Geospatial Technology – Federal Geographic Data Committee |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Networking Luncheon | |
| Eastern Time | Tuesday, June 18 | Speakers |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Featuring a Debate: “In an era of ever-increasing data availability, there is a pressing need for digital interoperability to solve today’s biggest problems through rapid innovation. Standards only slow this down and are therefore no longer necessary.” | Moderator: Rosie Chen, Community Manager – OGC Debaters: Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist – Google Steve Liang, Founder and CTO – SensorUp Will Cadell, CEO – Sparkgeo Bilyana Anicic, President – Aurora Consulting |
| 11:30 – 12:30 | Featuring a Panel: The Transformative Role of Industry in National Geospatial Strategy and Spatial Data Infrastructure In this panel, speakers will provide perspectives on the transformative role of industry in contributing to and leading technological advancement of geospatial data, geospatial information management, GeoAI, analytics, and related services, and discuss how the private sector is leveraging and contributing to Canada’s spatial data infrastructure to support public and private sector missions and civil society needs. The panel will also explore how the industry can better enable SDI by fostering innovation, promoting data interoperability, and building partnerships across different sectors. | Moderator: Tom Landry, Business Analyst Specialist – Intact Panelists: Gordon Plunkett, Director, Spatial Data Infrastructure – Esri Canada Dean Hintz, Senior Analyst – Safe Software Barry O’Rourke, President – Compusult Liliana Perez, Associate Professor – University of Montreal |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Networking Luncheon | |
| 13:30 – 15:00 | Coming Back Together in Partnership and Closing The discussion will focus on “Coming Back Together in Partnership,” addressing key points from the read-ahead survey and crafting an action plan for the year ahead. | Trevor Taylor, Senior Director – OGC Ryan Ahola, Environmental Scientist – Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) |