In partnership with the Australian Space Agency, the Space Industry Association of Australia will host the Southern Space Symposium at the National Press Club in Canberra on 29-30 November 2021.

The Southern Space Symposium is the Australian space industry’s flagship annual conference, bringing together space industry experts and decision-makers from across Australia. At a pivotal moment, the Southern Space Symposium will this year bring space industry together with government and parliament for two days in Canberra to help shape the future agenda for Australian space’s aspirations.

Participants will include federal government departments and agencies, international agencies and missions, defence and space prime contractors, listed space companies, academic and research organisations, small and medium enterprises, space start-ups, and individual space professionals.

The International Cartographic Association (ICA) Commission on Atlases, the ICA Commission on Map Design, the Joint ICA-IGU Commission on Toponymy, the National Geographic Institute of Spain (IGN) and the Spanish Society for Cartography, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (SECFT) will jointly host a conference on atlases, toponymy and map design in Madrid.

During six sessions of four presentations each, questions concerning evolving dissemination concepts and techniques for atlases, recent development and examples of national atlases as well as important map design and toponomastic issues in atlas production will be discussed.

The theme of the event will be ‘Atlases in time’. Presentations will be held in a 20-minute format of 15 minutes presenting and 5 minutes discussion.

The presenters for this topical webinar will be Dr Craig Roberts, Senior Lecturer in Surveying/GPS/Geodesy at UNSW and Wayne Patterson Director, Spatial Operations at the NSW Department of Customer Service.

Roberts will give a short update on the revision of the Australian Standard, AS_5488 Classification of subsurface utility information in the context of datum modernisation, low-cost multi-GNSS and recent advances in positioning infrastructure in Australia.

Data storage, data distribution and security are identified as challenges suggesting a reimagined data governance will be needed. Could a spatial digital twin assist? What is a spatial digital twin? Is it a BIM? Where does it come from? What is an open data policy? Who can use it? Can I use it? Which datum? How accurate is the data?

Rather than just another PowerPoint webinar, Roberts will interview Patterson in a free-flowing format. Attendees will be invited to ask their own questions live in the chat as the conversation evolves.

This webinar is targeted at surveyors, geospatial users, students and the wider spatial community.