Dear BeSpatial Members,

As the year draws to a close, I wanted to take the opportunity to offer my heartfelt thanks to you all for your continued support of our organization. We recognize that in these challenging and often uncertain times, such support is not always assured.

We were therefore somewhat nervous about staging our first virtual AGM this past May, but delighted and amazed at the excellent turnout and feedback we received from attendees. The responses we received from our post-event survey was extremely encouraging as well.

Since then, the BeSpatial Board had many long and involved discussions on how we would stage our upcoming AGM in May 2022. We all strived to get back to a live event, but in light of the frequent setbacks we as a society have had in our ongoing struggle to contain and move on from CoVID-19, the Board had to take the difficult decision to once again stage a virtual event. However, the good news is that with the experience we gained through our inaugural virtual event, we are confident we can make BeSpatial ’22 even better.

The theme we have selected is “BeConnected”, focusing on how organizations cooperate/collaborate in geospatial and data implementations. We feel strongly that there is an abundance of topics and sub-themes that fit well under this overall theme, and we encourage our members and their organizations to submit abstracts that align with this. A first call for presentations was sent out at the end of November, so please consider sharing your experiences with our members. We would love to hear from you.

Lastly, I wanted to give a quick thanks to our Board members and Executive Director, without whom none of this would be possible. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, and their passion and dedication is inspiring.

And with that, my colleagues on the Board and I would like to wish you and your families the very best for the upcoming holidays, and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. We hope you can join us for BeSpatial ’22. We look forward to “seeing” you there.

Sincerely,

Peter Hettstedt
President, BeSpatial