Conference Heats Up with Move from Spring to Summer
Adding greater value and wider interest to its annual conference, normally held in spring, the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) has joined forces with Esri to form the premier event in the surveying industry. The Survey Summit is the new conference cohosted by ACSM and Esri, and it promises to retain all the benefits of the long-running ACSM Annual Conference with the added curriculum that will come from the geospatial industry.
The inaugural Survey Summit will take place July 7–12, 2011, in San Diego, California, sharing its final two days with the Esri International User Conference (Esri UC). It will serve as the ideal forum for not only ACSM members but also anyone interested in GIS technology, as well as emerging technologies such as lidar and 3D scanning.
"ACSM has served as a voice of land surveyors and mappers for more than 70 years," says Brent Jones, Esri's surveying, cadastral, and land records industry manager. "As the surveying and geospatial industries continue to make technological advances together, it makes sense that the professionals of these related fields join together at one premier conference. We're excited to have ACSM as part of the Survey Summit. It's a must-attend event for the surveying community, as it provides access to the pinnacle of technology available to surveyors and mappers."
The society is composed of more than 5,000 surveyors, cartographers, geodesists, and other spatial data information-related professionals from private industry, government, and academia throughout the world. As technology has provided new methods of obtaining and using spatial data, such as GIS, land information systems and GPS, ACSM and its members have continually responded to the challenges presented by these new technologies.
"ACSM is dedicated to creating and maintaining a positive synergy between the GIS and surveying professions by exposing GIS professionals to surveying, and surveying and geomatics professionals to emerging geospatial technologies," says Curt Sumner, ACSM executive director. "The Survey Summit will allow us to demonstrate to the world that the surveying, engineering, and GIS professions do intersect with each other and can work together effectively. An event like this is great for the geospatial community at large."
Members of the storied organization share Sumner's sentiments. "This is undeniably one of the biggest steps forward in linking the surveying and mapping profession with the GIS profession," says ACSM member Richard Pryce, PSM, director of the Florida Surveying and Mapping Society, District 6. "This is truly a monumental step into the future for surveyors and mappers across the nation to join in the revolution and evolution of GIS."
For more information, to register, or to take advantage of sponsorship and exhibit opportunities, visit surveysummit.com.
