GITA. WE ARE INFRASTRUCTURE.
Statement of Response to the Geospatial Community

The Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) is proudly taking a leading role as the predominant organization for geospatial infrastructure solutions, starting with a new branding campaign and a change to its flagship conference name.

in·fra·struc·ture: all fundamental services, activities, and operations that sustain our communities and way of life

GITA leaders have changed the “Annual Conference” to the “Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference.” This repositioning and shift in how GITA will brand and market the event better reflect the broader scope and industry audiences that GITA’s conference has accommodated over the years. The next conference will take place March 9-12, 2008, in Seattle, Wash.

WHY IS GITA REPOSITIONING THE ASSOCIATION?

1) GITA’s new position better reflects the rapidly expanding nature of the geospatial industry and the elevated knowledge and experience of our industry members.

GITA is committed to the geospatial community and more specifically to its members from the user and vendor sides of that community. A significant evolution and an elevation of experience have occurred in the geospatial user community. This became most apparent not only through GITA’s extensive membership surveys and at our most recent March Annual Conference, but also through the organization’s work with the U.S. Department of Labor in creating an industry definition to support geospatial’s emergence as one of the nation’s top 14 fast growth industries. The geospatial industry has officially migrated from being exclusively a “technology” to being a full-fledged industry sector that is instrumental in the management of the critical infrastructure that supports every aspect of civil life—from telecommunications to emergency response to banking and finance.

2) GITA’s conference is shifting from a technology conference to an industry conference.

There was a time when people attended GITA’s Annual Conference to learn about an emerging niche technology called geographic information systems (GIS). A majority of the user community has worked with at least one geospatial platform and looks to the vendor community and respective vendor user conferences to understand the technology. Where many geospatial industry conferences provide users with vendor-specific solutions, users attending GITA’s “Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference” can benefit from learning about specific solutions in a neutral venue—solutions that advance the GIS they are already using. Attendees can tap into applications of geospatial technology that, in some cases, only a limited number of people are currently using. GITA showcases those solutions at its Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference.

HOW WILL GITA ACCOMPLISH THIS REPOSITIONING?

In addition to signaling GITA’s new organizational focus through a new branded logo and name for the Conference, there are a number of strategic initiatives, programs and offerings that GITA will be launching to support their new focus as the industry’s leading advocate for geospatial infrastructure solutions, including:

• GITA is going green!
• Organizations across the globe are implementing environmentally friendly practices using “Green GIS.” GITA’s next Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference in Seattle, WA, will have content focused on green GIS, and the organization will add on to this element of the conference in years to come—even in its own conference operations.

• A Brand New Emergency Response Symposium is in the works!
• A widely recognized area of infrastructure is emergency response and planning. Programming is already in place for a “conference within a conference,” happening at the next Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference in March 2008.

• GITA is even more focused on broad, horizontal solutions of geospatial technology!
• With projects such as the now completed return on investment workbook, Building a Business Case for Geospatial Information Technology: A Practitioner’s Guide to Financial Strategic Analysis, GITA will continue to ensure that broad geospatial solutions are the focus of the organization and the conference.