The numbers and evaluations of MundoGEO#Connect are already available. The event was held in São Paulo (SP) from June 14 to June 16 in São Paulo and counted on the geo-technologies community’s expressive participation. There were more than 7,5 thousand professionals connected to it, being 900 participants of seminars and mini-courses, 1,8 thousand visitors to the fair and over 5 thousand internet users who followed the event online, through Twitter and through webinars that transmitted 10% of the event’s program. Besides a fair of products and services, counting on the main companies of the sector, MundoGEO#Connect also counted on an extensive list of activities that included seminars, mini-courses, workshops and users’ meetings.

There were over 110 lecturers, including several international speakers such as Joel Campbell, president of Erdas, Denny Welch, | senior VP of Topcon, Raymond Kevin, director of global planning survey products of Topcon, Dale Lutz | Vice-president of Development and Co-founder of Safe Software, Ruediger Wagner, Manager of Products of Imaging of Leica Geosystems, Wolfgang Biedermann, CEO of RapidEye and Mike Renslow from ISPRS among others.

The organization of the event accomplished a survey on MundoGEO#Connect 2011, so that its second edition, already confirmed to be held from May 29 to May 31, 2012, can be an even greater success. Among the visitors to the fair and the participants of the seminars and mini-courses, 87% approved the date, organization and infrastructure of the place, 88% would participate again and would recommend MundoGEO#Connect to their friends, while 85% evaluated the approached themes as being excellent or good.

The parallel events also stood out. Such events were promoted by the City hall of São Paulo, by São Paulo’s Company of Metropolitan Planning (Emplasa) and by Vale, among others. In these meetings, the aim was to present and discuss the current level of the geotechnologies projects with the community. The sponsors also accomplished several simultaneous events that attracted visitors to the fair, as the Encounter of Users of the software FME, promoted by the company Innovation; and on the future of the agro-business in Brazil, organized by Digibase.

The event´s magazine is available online: https://mundogeoconnect.com/2011/revista2011.php

MundoGEO#Connect Awards

Besides the activities, MundoGEO#Connect Awards was an innovation in the geo-technologies area, and it chose the best professionals and geo-technologies companies. The award was divided into 13 categories. Concerning to the award for the best companies of the geo area, the great winners were Engemap, Sisgraph and the group Santiago & Cintra. The main award, for the professional of the decade, was won by Luiz Paulo Souto Fortes, director of geosciences of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and a member of OGC.

Next event

A lot of changes are being made for next year. “In 2012 we will have a larger space to accommodate a 50% larger fair as well as more auditoriums for parallel events in the areas of defense, environment, geo-location, cities administration, petroleum, gas and mining. Several companies are interested in accomplishing users’ meetings during the event. MundoGEO#Connect consolidates itself as the main meeting of Latin America in the geo-technology sector”, states Emerson Granemann, director and publisher of MundoGEO Group.

“For 2012, we will extend the space for lectures and debates to professionals from countries of South America. This change of experience is fundamental for the market’s growth. Besides that, the timing for the debates will also be extended in order to provide even more interactivity among the ones who are present at the event, and we will be using the talk show format”, explains Eduardo Freitas, technical coordinator of MundoGEO#Connect.

The participants’ profile

In São Paulo we counted on the presence of producers and users of the geoinformation from all over the Brazilian states, participants from Angola, Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile, besides businesspeople from Europe, Asia and North America. The Brazilian participants came from the Southeast area (61%), the South (18%), the Midwest (8%), the Northeast (8%) and the North (5%).

These participants act 50% in the private sector, 34% in the public sector and 16% in the teaching and research area. And their positions are: director or president (32%), manager or coordinator (33%) and technician (35%).

As for the sector of the participants’ performance, 20% work on technical registration, 17% on territorial administration, 21% in the environment and natural resources sectors, 21% on utilities and infrastructure, while 14% use geo-technologies in the area of business intelligence.