Montgomery Asia has announced that its flagship geospatial and location intelligence event for Southeast Asia, Geo Connect Asia (GCA), has gone hybrid. It will feature both a physical event on 24 and 25 March 2021 at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, as well as a virtual Geo Connect Asia 2021 for delegates and visitors.
Themed ‘Global Solutions for Asia’s Geospatial & Location Intelligence Markets’, GCA 2021 will bring together the latest innovations in smart cities, digital construction, remote sensing and UAVs, among others. It is also set to be Singapore’s first large-scale physical-virtual event in 2021, combining a two-day conference, technical talks and plenary sessions.
Montgomery Asia said it is working with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to ensure the safety and well-being of attendees. This includes complying with Safe Management Measures (SMM), such as crowd density control, and the use of TraceTogether to facilitate contact tracing for international visitors.
According to the show organiser, GCA 2021 will be the next pilot tradeshow to trial the ‘hybrid event’ prototype developed by the Alliance for Action on Enabling Safe and Innovative Visitor Experiences. The prototype seeks to offer delegates the degree of interaction they would be accustomed to in a regular tradeshow setting – but in a far safer way which minimises infection risks.
“Going hybrid is set to be a game-changer in this new normal, as international travel remains limited while physical events are slowly allowed to resume (under strict health and safety protocols),” said Rupert Owen, event director and co-founder of Montgomery Asia. “There has also been significant clamour for the safe resumption of face-to-face meetings after a very long interval, and a dual-platform approach brings the best of both worlds.”
GCA conference
The highlight of GCA 2021 will be the conference on ‘Mapping the Data-driven Future Economy’. It will be led by high-level speakers and thought leaders from across the global geospatial industry, delivering a strategic and collaborative platform for industry professionals, government agencies, start-ups and more to exchange knowledge, expand networks, and develop global solutions for burgeoning geospatial and location intelligence markets across Asia.
The two-day conference will comprise various panel sessions where industry experts will share invaluable insights, provide responses to real and current challenges and will also facilitate both face-to-face and virtual business meetings to be conducted in the safe environment complying with Safe Management Measures (SMM).
The conference will feature 40 leading international speakers including Hwang Yu-Ning, chief planner and deputy CEO at Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Singapore; Philipp Kandal, head of engineering for Geo at Grab, Singapore; Dr Winnie Tang, founder and honorary president at Smart City Consortium, Hong Kong; David Henderson, chief geospatial officer at Ordnance Survey, UK; Robbie Schingler, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Planet Labs, USA; and Farizan D’Avezac de Moran, senior consultant at GreenA Consultants, Singapore.
There will be 10 keynote addresses, panel sessions and extensive dialogue at the conference. In-depth commentaries and expert analyses from key opinion leaders from across the diverse geospatial sector and beyond will focus on:
- Geospatial planning and solutions: the key to a robust and sustainable recovery
- Building resilience and sustainability into the ASEAN digital economy
- Earth observation satellites, remote sensing & drones: managing the data explosion
- Sustainable and liveable cities
- Digital twins: transforming the dynamics of connected infrastructure planning
- Smarter infrastructure for sustainable cities
- On the move: Smart transportation for Asia’s dynamic urban landscapes
- Easily accessible data for the future of Geospatial Planning
- Digital Innovation Roundtable: Putting 5G to work: intelligent use cases for ASEAN
- The Digital Construction Asia Dialogue
The event will also offer complimentary technical seminars from global experts that have been curated for the geospatial community to learn more about current market insights, trends and the impact of innovative disruptive technologies that could bring positive change across the diverse range of industries relevant to GCA 2021.
Ng Siau Yong, director of Geospatial and Data Division and chief data officer at Singapore Land Authority (SLA), said, “SLA continues to support Geo Connect Asia as a Knowledge Partner, as the event is a key lynchpin of the geospatial community in Singapore and ASEAN. The geospatial sector has a role in accelerating opportunities and economic recovery as the region’s economies shift to the new normal.
“Geo Connect Asia could act as a catalyst for accelerating the broader adoption of cutting-edge geospatial technologies across a vast range of sectors in Southeast Asia. As Singapore forges ahead towards becoming a smart nation, geospatial technologies will have a growing role to play in the country’s growth and transformation.”
Industry Ambassadors
Thought leaders and industry experts from the geospatial sector will be in attendance, sharing insights, trends and challenges from around the region. These Industry Ambassadors include: Ady Ruchiatan, VP of the Association of Surveying and Mapping Enterprises for Geospatial Information, Indonesia; Argoon Chuang, digital transformation lead at AECOM Southeast Asia; Dan Schirren, head of business development, Asia Pacific at Ordnance Survey; Farizan D’Avezac De Moran, senior partner at GreenA Consultants; Jan Schoderer, sales director, APAC at Vexcel Imaging GmbH; John Whitehead, director of sales and distribution, APAC at Trimble Inc; Lanita Idrus, publisher of The Asia Miner and director of The Djakarta Mining Club and Coal Club Indonesia; and Ng Siau Yong, director of Geospatial and Data Division and chief data officer at SLA.
