Vice President Matt Higgins visits GEO-Siberia-2008
Novosibirsk, Russian Federation, 22-24 April 2008
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Vice President
Matt Higgins ringing the bell to open
Geo-Siberia 2008. |
Vice President
Matt Higgins outside the Siberian State
Academy of Geodesy SSGA. |
The 4th International Exhibition and Scientific Congress “GEO-Siberia-2008”
was organised by the Siberian State Academy of Geodesy (SSGA) and the
International Exhibition Centre “Siberian Fair” in Novosibirsk 22-24 April
2008. This year’s event was also devoted to the 75th anniversary of SSGA.
The event is modelled on INTERGEO in Germany with a large exhibition and an
associated technical conference. There were some 3,000 participants overall
with approximately 100 companies in the exhibition. In the conference there
were 18 technical sessions with 450 presentations.
The SSGA and Siberian Fair produced a press release, which gives a
detailed description of all of the activities, the various participants etc.
This report will focus on key issues and recommendations of importance to
FIG.
Regional Event
Siberia has significant activity in oil and gas exploration and in
mining, which means the local economy is quite strong. This is reflected in
the high quality of the surveying activities and the work of the SSGA. It
also means that the Geo-Siberia event seems to be on a strong financial
basis.
The event has excellent participation from within Russia and surrounding
countries and is representative of the whole of the Central Asian region.
For example the following were represented: within Russia: Ministry of
Education and Science of the Russian Federation; The Federal Service of
Geodesy and Cartography of Russia; Federal Real Estate Cadastre Agency;
Administration of the Siberian Federal District; and Association of Siberian
and Far Eastern Cities. From the surrounding Region, I personally spoke to
representatives from Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Ukraine.
International organisations were also well represented at President or
Vice President level, including: ICA, ISPRS and FIG. The representatives of
those international organisations were also invited as VIPs to the
celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the SSGA, which included a concert
and reception at the Novosibirsk Opera House.
German DVW has been a strong supporter of Geo-Siberia for several years
now and the DVW President attended. Two German professors (Lothar
Gruendig and Reiner Jaeger) were made honorary professors of the
SSGA in recognition of their ongoing contribution to Geo-Siberia; it should
be noted that both Prof. Gruendig and Prof. Jaeger are involved in FIG
Commissions 5 and 6.
Conference Program
At the end of Geo-Siberia, several of the international participants met
with the Rector of the SSGA and I took the opportunity to outline a number
of issues where I think FIG could assist in future, particularly in relation
to the Technical Program.
The program included FIG Working Group 6.3 Workshop on “Current
Challenges of Engineering Surveys”. The session was organised by the
Chair of FIG WG 6.3 Prof. Gruendig from Berlin. Unfortunately the FIG
Workshop was parallel to some relevant sessions in the Russian speaking part
of the program, which drew some participation away from our Workshop. Even
so, the Workshop was very well received and the organisers would like to see
similar or expanded participation from FIG in the future.
Language is an issue for any events in Russia but the quality of the
translation at Geo-Siberia-2008 was high and that issue can be managed. The
SSGA is responsible for the technical program at Geo-Siberia so there is
strong scientific content in the program.
Read more:
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Matt Higgins in Red Square in Moscow in his Sydney 2010 polo shirt
"Red Shirt in Red Square". |
Matt Higgins
FIG Vice President |
