World Class Speakers Attract Record Visitors to European LiDAR Mapping Forum

The third ELMF held in Salzburg, Austria from 4-5th December 2012, has been hailed as the most successful yet with its focus on the use of LIDAR to support transport, urban modelling, coastal zone mapping, asset management, 3D visualisation and GIS applications.

Held at the prestigious Salzburg Congress, 447 delegates from 45 countries gathered for ELMF with captivating presentations delivered by the world’s leading LIDAR experts. Delegates were also able to visit ELMF’s largest exhibition yet, with more than 50 top global hardware/software manufacturers and service providers, live demonstrations and a selection of mobile mapping vehicles operating in real time as they went about the city of Salzburg capturing map data.

The conference plenary session was opened by Chairman, Alastair MacDonald of TMS International who noted that the industry is in common with the wider economies of Europe experiencing a challenging time. However this is simultaneously driving new technologies and applications which are about to significantly change the market by enabling faster, better and cheaper deliverables to end users. In particular the market drivers are now leading on-the-fly processing of captured LIDAR and imagery data and then its fast transformation into accessible and manageable visualisation systems.

The conference enjoyed a thought-provoking keynote from Lawrie Jordan, Director of Imagery at ESRI, world leaders in GIS platform technology. Mr Jordan outlined a stimulating vision of how remotely sensed data can be transformed through GIS into intelligent 3D images for use in the cloud or in augmented or virtual reality.

ELMF’s Conference Director, Versha Carter, commented, “We are thrilled by the success of this year’s ELMF. Our speakers delivered outstanding papers, with a wealth of subjects and information for all. The venue at Salzburg once again attracted global interest and provided an extra special dimension socially with its seasonal events. We are delighted by delegates’ positive feedback.”

To order a copy of the conference proceedings, please email info@lidarmap.org