Page 1 of 1 29 August - 1 September 2006, QSNCC, Bangkok, Thailand Specifically named as ‘GeoICT for Good Governance’, penetration of geo-information technology into governments at different levels was the theme of 5th Map Asia conference. The event witnessed an enthralling opening session. The beautifully decorated stage marked the grandeur of the event. The opening session had Sanjay Kumar, CEO, GIS Development as the first speaker, who while welcoming the delegates to the event also explained the worldwide activities of the GIS Development."We are back to Bangkok with a Bang" was one of the cheers raised by Dr M P Narayanan, President, GIS Development for the conference during his introductory remarks at the ceremony. Guest speakers who spoke during the session were made Prof Dr Holger Magel, President FIG and Prof John C Trinder, First Vice President of ISPRS. Keynote Address at the session was delivered by Mr Kraisorn Pornsutee, Permanent Secretary of Thailand's Ministry of ICT. The session was presided over by Lt Gen (Dr) Vichit Satharanond who is Director, Royal Thai Survey Department & Chairman, GISTDA. Exhibition, which spanned over an area of 900 square meters and having 41 exhibitors was also inaugurated by the Chief Guest. The event was made joyful with the musical band accompanying the chief guest and other dignitaries while they visited different booths. The multiple exhibits were put up by companies and organizations from around the world. The day ended with Exhibitors' reception and the dinner the two that served perfect platforms for initial networking, knowledge sharing, etc. The day two started with the Plenary session on "Geographic Information Trends: Global Perspectives." The speakers at the session were Prof Holger Magel, Dr Stewart Walker, Dr A R Dasgupta and Dr John Trinder. Prof Magel, while highlighting the three 'dispositions' of need of sustainable development, good governance and of 'its all about geographic information' put his views on different aspects of four areas viz., Geo-Tools, Geo-Data, Geo-Processes/Geo-Business and Geo- Cooperation/Human Interactions. Dr Stewart Walker, showed the trends of growth of photogrammetry elaborately with bottom-lines as photogrammetry continues to be evolutionary and vibrant and airborne LiDAR is in hot pursuit. Dr A R Dasgupta, Distinguished Professor was of the view that geo-spatial industry has to become service centric and the information provided must be in the form which is readily comprehensible. Prof Trinder presented in detail the advancements and future path for the observation satellites.  The second plenary session was on "GeoICT for Good Governance". The presenters were Drs Sjaak Beerens, ITC, the Netherlands, Mr Johannes Kebeck, who was in place of ProfVincent Tao, Microsoft Virtual Earth and Dr David Hastings from UNESCAP,Thailand. Issues like, whether GeoICT is panacea and the need for anAsia-Pacific GeoICT congress were the highlights of the session. The four key speakers from the industry Richard McKay (Leica Geo Systems), Geoff Zeiss (Autodesk), Mike McGill (Digitalglobe) and Carey Mann from Bentley Systems in various ways dealt with the issue of Enterprise GIS and Infrastructure and Development, which was the title of the third plenary session of the event. Richard McKay made a lucid presentation on why and how the gap between the remote sensing, photogrammetry, interoperability and visualization be bridged. Geoff Zeiss, while stressing upon more responsiveness to customers under sectors of utilities, telecom and local government also presented various aspects ofWeb 2.0 and open source web-mapping. Mike McGill stated that imagery is becoming an 'Expected contextual layer for end users' while putting up his views on Enterprise GIS vis-à-vis high resolution imagery. Carey Mann focused his talk on drivers of change as Diversity, Modeling reality- 3D, Multi-disciplinary, Openness and Workflow. Last technical programme of the day was the workshop on LiDAR organized by Speck Spatial Tech. It was the musical and colourful Gala dinner that marked the end of the day. The beautiful Thai traditional performances were interspersed with the award ceremony where each exhibitor was honoured for his/her participation. The best exhibitor awards were also announced during the Gala Dinner. The third day had two keynote sessions
There were 20 technical sessions organised with 2 students’ sessions. The last day had the second Workshop on Virtual Earth. It was at the Valedictory session that the awards for three best paper presentations were announced. Putting his views to the audience, Prof A R Dasgupta mentioned the Map Asia 2006, which witnessed the participation of over 1,000 delegates from 31 countries had shown how the vertical domains of Geo-spatial technologies are being developed and new users are thus being created and catered to. The congratulatory remarks were also made by speakers from the government, academia and the industry. The different organizations that partnered with GIS Development were- Co-organiser GISTDA Gold Sponsors BAE Systems and Digitalglobe Silver Sponsors ER Mapper, Speck Systems and Trimble Co-sponsors FIG, ISCGM, ISPRS, OGC and PCGIAP Supporting Organisation UNESCO Knowledge Partners CSDMS, GeoICT, UTM and ADPC Country Partner Government of India Government Sponsors Ministry of Agriculture & Cooperatives (Thailand) and BAKOSURTANAL, (Indonesia) Awards Three Best Papers
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