Outline

“Geo-Information has a high economic potential. It provides a common reference for complex relationships” states MICUS consultants. This quote came after completing several cost benefit studies for political representatives at all levels (local, national and European), which produced figures supporting such potential. However, it will only unfold into economic activity when more geospatial content is made available under uniform and easy-to-use conditions.

Member States are undertaking substantial efforts towards this goal. Such efforts, however, need coordination at the EU-level in order to strengthen European GI competitiveness in the worldwide market and free the continent from a disadvantage associated with investments needing harmonised geo-information. Important milestones in this direction include GALILEO, GMES, INSPIRE, and in a wider context also the Public Sector Information Initiative and eGovernment. These efforts must involve as many stakeholders, users and players as possible.

The idea is, therefore, to bring these stakeholders together in the form of an EU-Day. It will be part of a prominent and well-attended European GI-event. It will tour from one event to another on a yearly basis, starting with the Intergeo 2004 in Germany. This could, later on, evolve into a stand-alone PEGGIE (Pan-European General GI-Event).

Target Audience / Scope

Industry representatives throughout Europe will discuss with policy makers and amongst themselves. Encouraging examples of European GI cooperation will be highlighted, bottlenecks and necessary actions identified in order to further stimulate sustainable economic and ecologic development in Europe.

Objectives

- encourage cross-border industry cooperation, exchange of knowledge and pest-practise

- help develop GI applications, drawing on complementary strengths among European companies and cultures

- assess perspectives of use within existing European policies and those of Member States

- identify infrastructure deficiencies in Europe and ways to overcome them, and accompany the emerging GI policy

FINAL Programme

INTRODUCTION OF SPEAKERS

TIME	Session	Speaker
09h00	Reception of guests; visit to exhibition , selected European stands	Horst Forster with delegation
10h00	Inauguration – Welcome	Presidents: Jean Poulit of EUROGI, Jochen Waechter of DDGI, Hagen Graeff of DVW
10h15	The European dimension of Geo-Information	Horst Forster, Director for Interfaces, Knowledge Content Technologies, Applications, Information Market, European Commission, LUXEMBOURG
10h45	The economic importance of GI – lessons learnt from recent studies and political measures	Bas Kok, Director Secretary of RAVI, Professor at Delft University, AMERSFOORT (NL)
11h05	Data availability and interoperability	Alain de Taeye, CEO, Teleatlas, GHENT (B)
11h25	GI-based services for the citizen	Michael Nicholson, Managing Director, Intelligent Addressing Ltd., LONDON (UK)
11h45	GI for the implementation of European policies	Dominique Caillaud, Member of French Parliament, President of AFIGéO, PARIS (F)
12h05	Successful cross-border cooperation – examples from the Saar-Lor-Lux region Introduction	Roger Terrens, Director of the Cadastral and Topographic Administration, LUXEMBOURG & Hans Bohnenblust, Member of the Board, Ernst Basler + Partner AG, ZOLLIKON (CH)
12h25	Use and expectations within the EU enlargement process	Szabolcs Mihaly, Director General, FOMI, BUDAPEST (H)
12h45	Software – the American challenge	Walter Mayer, CEO, PROGIS GmbH, VILLACH (A)
13h05	Geodata integration – business case and future markets	Dr. Rupert Haydn, CEO GAF-AG, MUNICH (D)
13h25	Business lunch - discussion of conclusions	DDGI, DVW, EUROGI, sponsors, speakers, politicians

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