Join us for the first session in our ‘Locate Connect’ online learning series! Hear from Scott Dewar, Director, Chris Hewett, Assistant Secretary GEOINT Capability and Development & Phil Shears, Director DEF799 Phase 2.

In this session from 1300 – 1400, the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO) will be launching the Defence Geospatial-Intelligence (GEOINT) Strategy, a document that addresses how the Defence GEOINT Community will transform to meet the future needs of the Australian Defence Force. The AGO Executive will also provide an update on their GEOINT projects and announce upcoming opportunities for industry and discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the organisation.

Then from 1430 – 1545, AGO, along with Frontier SI will describe how The Analytics Lab Program (AGO Labs) fits into the bigger picture of AGO capability and summarise the outcomes of their 2019 activities. AGO Labs, coordinated through FrontierSI, is investigating a number of ways to better engage and work with industry. Specifically, the AGO is keen to attract a wider pool of companies and technologies to draw on for automated geospatial intelligence. The primary focus of this program is to address AGO capability challenges through a small number of short-term industry projects, with a focus on machine learning and analytics for producing automated imagery analysis, including automated object classification. AGO will announce a new 2020 program of challenges hoping to find innovative solutions through their partnership with FrontierSI.

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 Australian Association for Unmanned Systems’ ‘RPAS in Australian Skies 2022’ conference aims to continue discussion on the safe integration of RPAS into Australian airspace. It is supported by key government and industry participants and has established itself as a landmark event in the Australian RPAS calendar.

The 2022 themes will cover:

• Policy and Regulatory updates from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, CASA, AirServices Australia and the Australian Defence Force relating to the use of emerging aviation technology in Australia.
• UAS Traffic Management (UTM), low level airspace, integrated airspace systems challenges and opportunities.
• Industry challenges and perspectives
• Continuing development of a professional and safe industry.
• ATSB RPAS data and trends
• Emerging technology and innovative solutions enabling integration or RPAS into Australian airspace.
• Future infrastructure requirements to enable drone delivery and advanced air mobility (AAM).
• Emerging RPAS and AAM applications – benefits, viability and social acceptance.

The conference will be a hybrid event incorporating face to face (live) and online (virtual) choices for participants. It will also include the AAUS Gala Dinner featuring the AAUS Industry Awards.

The Local Government Spatial Reference Group (LGSRG) will be holding a webinar on Monday, 4 September, to introduce a series of hands-on workshops it will be holding across Victoria during September 2023.

The webinar will cover the topic of Best Practice Geospatial Intelligence for Climate Impact, and will address important topics on climate impact, community safety and how geospatial intelligence can contribute to better outcomes for local governments.

The LGSRG was formed in 2003 to address the need for a sector wide group representing the strategic interests of the Victorian Local Government sector with respect to spatial information. The LGSRG has been active throughout the COVID pandemic to keep the local government geospatial community connected and engaged via the annual Spatial Capability Workshop series which have grown year on year, and is now diversifying with a quarterly Spatial Hour webinar to share stories of success within the local government geospatial sector.

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