Press Release 9th August 2013

Get Fit for Maptember

September 2013, in the UK at least, is Maptember! The sheer volume of geospatial conferences and events has led to the month having to be renamed, with a dedicated website being set-up to guide delegates through the myriad of options open to them.

For the first time ever the global Open Source caravan, FOSS4G, comes to the UK. Co-located with the huge annual UK GI gathering, the AGI GeoCommunity, these two events will turn Nottingham University campus into the focus of the geospatial world. Also, for the first time since its inauguration event, State of the Map will return to the UK being hosted in Birmingham.

In addition the Society of Cartographers, British Cartographic Society and the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society all hold their annual conferences in Maptember, with workshops and Hacks for OpenStreetMap and QGIS aplenty.

As we all know, Geospatial Conferences are intense affairs and with this focus of activity in a single month we’re advising delegates to prepare for the onslaught with an appropriate training programme. A phased introduction of sleep deprivation, wifi-signal hunting, finger-strengthening exercises are recommended, with additional focus on #geobeer intake enlargement. On a more serious note, how about getting your social media presence ready? Make sure you are using the right #hashtags, connecting with the relevant groups, your profiles are up to date and start networking ahead of the event…or just have business cards at the ready. And don’t forget packing all the electronics – phone chargers (and plug adaptors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BS_1363).

Booking for FOSS4G remains open until 9^th September.

Notes to the Editor:

About FOSS4G (2013.foss4g.org): FOSS4G is the global conference for Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial, hosted by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and organised by a Local Organising Committee. FOSS4G will be held in the United Kingdom for the first time in 2013, at the East Midlands Conference Centre (http://www.nottinghamconferences.co.uk/emcc/) in Nottingham, from 17th to 21st September. FOSS4G 2013 will follow on from the Association for Geospatial Information (www.agi.org.uk) annual GeoCommunity event held in the same venue. These two conferences form a part of the geospatial focused events happening across the UK in September (www.maptember.org).

About OSGeo (www.osgeo.org): The Open Source Geospatial Foundation, or OSGeo, is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support the collaborative development of open source geospatial software, and promote its widespread use. The foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration. The foundation’s projects are all freely available and useable under an OSI-certified open source license http://www.opensource.org/licenses/.

Media Sponsorship: FOSS4G would welcome the support and encouragement of media sponsors. Full details are available at http://2013.foss4g.org/media-sponsorship-package/.

Logo: The FOSS4G logo can be downloaded from: http://2013.foss4g.org/Style/.