The 2014 GITA Excellence award winner was Western Power. From left: Antoine Burdett (GITA president), Katherine Townsley (Western Power) and Bruce Douglas (GITA past president).

The Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA) Australia & New Zealand 2014 annual conference was held in Sydney last week.

Representatives from the energy, water, and telecommunications sectors were treated to a jam-packed program of government and industry professionals offering fresh insights into how GIS technology and information enable organisations to get the most value out of an asset’s lifecycle.

The conference provided an excellent platform for organisations and members of like-minded spatial industry bodies to discuss the latest trends and developments in GIS and widen their professional networks

The conference also involved the GITA Excellence and DBYD Award ceremonies:

• The 2014 GITA Excellence award winner was Western Power.
• The 2014 DBYD Award was awarded to both Energex and Essential Energy.

At the conference, GITA ANZ President Antoine Burdett also announced details of next year’s event. He reiterated that the goal of GITA ANZ is to remain relevant and provide ongoing and additional value to GITA  members, drawing attention to the catchword in the GITA ANZ strategic plan – “V.I.E.W.”:

Value: GITA ANZ adds value to its members and their businesses.

Informative: GITA ANZ keeps its members informed of cutting edge relevant technologies and best practices for implementation and ongoing utilisation.

Encourage: GITA ANZ encourages the sharing of knowledge amongst members to improve their organisations’ effectiveness and productivity.

Wisdom: GITA ANZ provides members with the information, knowledge and skills to inform and support better decision making.

One of GITA’s strategic plan objectives is industry representation and collaboration – the way in which we collaborate with like-minded associations. In relation to this Antoine was pleased to advise that GITA ANZ has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) making GITA ANZ become a part of Locate from 2015, and afforded the same conference benefits as other Locate members including SSSI and SIBA.

“The aim of Locate is to consolidate the top industry events including spatial@gov, SSSI Conference and the Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards, and now the GITA ANZ annual conference,” said Antoine. “Locate is now the premier national spatial information conference and exhibition in Australia and New Zealand, and the GITA Board believe it’s now the right time to be part of this.

“Whilst we all have our own identities we do have shared interests and I see Locate as a perfect mechanism to bring additional value, collaborate and explore those shared interests. GITA ANZ will remain a valuable part of and contributor to the spatial industry.”