Dec 17, 2014 -- MAPPS and National Society of Professional Surveyors ( NSPS) today announced they will jointly host a national surveying, mapping, and geospatial conference, Collaboration: The Map to the Future, April 13-16, 2015 at the Hilton Hotel in Crystal City (Arlington), VA.

The conference will bring together associations, professional societies, companies and government agencies in the surveying, mapping and geospatial fields. It will focus on bridging the gap between government agencies and the private sector, as well as different disciplines in the community, with a special focus on how technological innovations further collaboration.

Providing a forum for discussions on best practices, technology, issues and policies, the conference gives participants an opportunity to share information, knowledge and tools, as well as opens doors to new markets and facilitates collaboration on data acquisition, processing, applications and the use of new and emerging technology.  

The overall conference will serve as an umbrella to include plenary sessions, an exhibit hall, and social/networking activities designed to create synergy among the many vertical segments (technical disciplines, applications, and sectors) of the surveying, mapping and geospatial community. It will also feature a "conference within a conference" format in which participating organizations will hold their own meetings and sessions.

The conference will include the MAPPS annual Federal Programs Conference April 14-15. Presentations by Federal agencies, the Obama Administration, and members of Congress will include briefings on programs, budgets, and requirements for the acquisition of geospatial services, data and products by contract from the private sector. MAPPS and NSPS members will visit some 200 Congressmen and Senators at the U.S. Capitol, advancing a common agenda of legislative issues that serve the public and engage the surveying and mapping community.  

NSPS will host the finals of its annual Student Competition on Monday, April 13. The 2014/15 competition will for the first time include not only student teams from four-year degree programs, but also teams from two-year degree programs. The NSPS annual General Membership meeting, and other business meetings, will be scheduled throughout the week in order to allow NSPS leadership to more fully participate in conference activities.  

Also on the program will be geodesy symposia by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and a licensed geospatial data forum by the Geospatial Management Office (GMO) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

"This conference is designed to meet several needs we've heard from our members. These include a desire for NSPS to resume a national surveying and mapping conference, to address the proliferation of too many conferences in the geospatial community by working jointly, to compliment, not compete with or duplicate the continuing education provided by state surveying societies, and provide an exhibit hall opportunity that crosses disciplines and is "vendor-neutral" or not tied to a specific company," said NSPS Executive Director Curtis W. Sumner, LS, and MAPPS Executive Director John M. Palatiello.

In the coming days a website, www.surveyingandmapping.net, will launch with more information and on-line registration.  

About MAPPS

Formed in 1982, MAPPS is the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the remote sensing, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States. The MAPPS membership spans the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, LIDAR, hydrography, bathymetry, charting, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Member Firms, which are companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States and other firms from around the world. Independent Consultant Members are sole proprietors engaged in consulting in or to the geospatial profession, or provides a consulting service of interest to the geospatial profession.

About NSPS

NSPS is a national professional society and federation of state societies of professional surveyors and persons trained, registered, or interested in the profession of surveying and mapping. NSPS advances the sciences and disciplines within the profession and strives to establish and further common interests, objectives, and political efforts to help bind the surveying profession into a unified body in the United States.