FIRA is a leading global event series, which this year is focused on the new era of robotics in agriculture and the huge impact it will have on the whole value chain. For the sixth year running, FIRA will be a hybrid in-person/online event, and is expected to attract 3000-plus attendees from around the world, including robot manufacturers, agricultural businesses, producers, investors, suppliers and entrepreneurs.

The 15th International Conference on Spatial Information Theory, COSIT 2022, will be held in Kobe, Japan, 5 to 9 September, 2022. Established in 1993, the Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT) is a biennial international conference series concerned with theoretical aspects of space and spatial information, aimed at advancing geographic information science and its emerging research frontiers.

The conference offers three (refereed) submission tracks with double-blind reviews: vision papers, full papers, and short papers. Embedded in the conference will also be an on-site mentoring program for doctoral students.

Contributions can cover a broad set of conference-relevant themes such as (but not limited to):

• activity-based models of spatial knowledge
• cognitive aspects of geographic information
• cognitive-behavioural geography, naive geography
• data-driven spatial information theory
• geo-ethics and geo-privacy
• events and processes in geographic space and time
• geographic information visualisation and geovisual analytics
• knowledge representation for space and time
• navigation and wayfinding of sentient beings and robots
• ontology of space and time
• place
• quality and interoperability of geographic information
• social and cultural organisation of space
• spatial and temporal language
• spatial aspects of social networks
• spatial decision support, impact of model design
• spatial (digital) humanities
• theory-driven spatial machine learning, artificial intelligence of space
• theories on volunteered geographic information
• theory and practice of spatial and temporal reasoning
• user interfaces, virtual spaces and collaborative spaces

The Tasmanian Spatial Information Council (TASSIC) will hold a Geospatial Workforce Development Forum on 9 November 2023, to help shape the future of the geospatial sector in Tasmania.

The Forum will bring together key stakeholders from education, employers, government and suppliers to address critical challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

The Forum will include presentations from representatives of industry, government and the education sector, as follows:

• Paul Digney (Jacobs)
• Rob Rowell (Insight GIS)
• Ben Morris (Local Government Association of Tasmania)
• Michael Krome (Australian Spatial Analytics)
• Arco Lucieer (University of Tasmania)
• Sam Ebert (TAFE NSW)
• Troy Robbins (TasTAFE)

The event will conclude with a moderated discussion session led by Danika Bakalich (Geospatial Council of Australia).

The Forum will be a hybrid event with both in-person and online attendance options available, and it will employ the Menti-Meter program to facilitate discussions, ensuring that each delegate’s voice is heard and their input valued.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/borisblik