March 27, 2015 (Washington, DC) - A program of professional, educational and technical sessions has been announced by MAPPS and NSPS for their joint National Surveying, Mapping and Geospatial Conference, Collaboration: The Map to the Future, to be held April 13-16, 2015 at the Hilton Hotel in Crystal City (Arlington), VA.

"These sessions will provide attendees and members perspectives on some of the major issues facing the profession," said MAPPS Executive Director John Palatiello and NSPS Executive Director Curtis Sumner. "Our goal from the beginning was to provide conference sessions that are distinct from what surveyors experience at their state conferences. These presentations will give conference attendees and members new insights on the geospatial profession, particularly in the commercial market."

On Monday April 13, sessions will include:

Michael Anderson, POB magazine - POB Top 100

Bryan Baker, Leica - What You Need to Know Before Starting Up Your Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Department  

Pam Nobles, Rob Garster - What Is Surveying? A Discussion of Infringing Technologies

Sessions on Wednesday, April 15 will include:
Rhonda Rushing and a panel from Berntsen, Inc. - Smart Markers for the Nation's Land & Infrastructure Assets

Ted Naak, Certainty 3D  - Establishing Requirements, Extracting Metrics and Evaluating Quality of LiDAR Data

Neil Sandler, and a panel from xyHT magazine - Are You Prepared for Change?

The conference also features a "conference within a conference" format in which participating organizations will hold their respective meetings and sessions. MAPPS will host its annual Federal Programs Conference April 14-15. Presentations by Federal agencies, the Obama Administration, and members of Congress will include briefings on programs, budgets, and requirements for the acquisition of geospatial services, data and products by contract from the private sector. NSPS will host the finals of its annual Student Competition on Monday, April 13. This competition will for the first time include not only student teams from four-year degree programs, but also teams from two-year degree programs. The NSPS annual General Membership meeting, and other business meetings, will be scheduled throughout the week in order to allow NSPS leadership to more fully participate in conference activities. MAPPS and NSPS members will visit some 200 Congressmen and Senators at the U.S. Capitol, advancing a common agenda of legislative issues that serve the public and engage the surveying and mapping community.

Also on the program will be an invitation only USGS 3DEP stakeholders meeting, a summit by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and a licensed geospatial data forum by the Geospatial Management Office (GMO) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  

Information, registration and other conference details can be found at www.surveyingandmapping.net

About MAPPS Formed in 1982, MAPPS is the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the remote sensing, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States. The MAPPS membership spans the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, LIDAR, hydrography, bathymetry, charting, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Member Firms, which are companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States and other firms from around the world. Independent Consultant Members are sole proprietors engaged in consulting in or to the geospatial profession, or provides a consulting service of interest to the geospatial profession.

About NSPS NSPS is the voice of the professional surveying community, with more than 15,000 individual members, primarily within the United States. Through its joint membership program with the respective state surveying societies, NSPS has a strong constituency base for communicating with lawmakers, agencies, and regulators at both the national and state levels. NSPS also collaborates with a multitude of other organizations within the geospatial community to address issues of mutual importance. As the lead society for the evaluation of college-level programs seeking accreditation through ABET, NSPS is instrumental in assuring that prospective professional surveyors receive an education that is relevant to the role they will play in society. NSPS is the U.S. representative to FIG (the international organization for surveyors), placing representatives on the respective practice-area Commissions. NSPS has a Certified Survey Technician (CST) program and a Hydrographic surveying certification program, and offers competitions for both high school and college-level students.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Beth Hawley
MAPPS
Communications Manager
703-787-6665
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