The second edition of Geo Connect Asia (GCA), Southeast Asia’s flagship geospatial and location intelligence technology trade event, came to a successful close after a two-day run at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore, from 1 to 2 June 2022.
Organised by Montgomery Asia, GCA 2022 was attended by close to 2,000 geospatial professionals from 36 countries. The event drew over 40 exhibitors from 14 countries, plus 79 prominent speakers and moderators.
“Geospatial development is an important dimension of our Smart Nation initiative, and we have developed a Geospatial Masterplan to guide the development and adoption of geospatial solutions,” said Singapore’s Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law, Edwin Tong SC, who was the guest of honour at the event.
“In the public sector, we have been using geospatial solutions to make better decisions, helping to create impact not just in the commercial world, but also making a visible difference on the social sector and making a visible impact on social value.”
A key highlight of the opening ceremony was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) and the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (REDAS). The MoU aims to fortify collaboration between the two organisations to promote awareness of geospatial technologies, and to organise joint events and capability-development programmes in order to address challenges faced by the real estate and related industries.
“The value of geospatial is more apparent than ever before. By coming together as a geospatial ecosystem, I believe our co-innovations and our partnerships will collectively shape the next bound of our common geospatial future,” said Colin Low, chief executive of SLA. “I hope this conference will allow you the space and time to reflect and exchange ideas on how we can bring forward geospatial development in the coming months and years.”
This year’s GCA was held alongside its two complementary industry events – Digital Construction Asia (DCA) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Asia. Strategic partners of GCA 2022 included the SLA, SLA’s geospatial industry centre, GeoWorks, and SGTech.
GCA 2022 was supported by over 60 trade organisations, associations and government agencies, including the Construction Industry Joint Committee (CIJC), GovTech Singapore (GovTech), Economic Development Board (EDB), Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), National Parks Board (NParks) and Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
Knowledge sharing
The GCA 2022 Conference, Expert Stage and Tech Talk programmes saw robust knowledge sharing on topics such as opportunities in the metaverse; smart construction using building information modelling (BIM) for integrated digital delivery (IDD); biodiversity and the greening of communities; earth observation and satellite technology advancements; drone-based business solutions; and the latest technology for capturing, surveying and mapping subsurface utilities; among others.
Dr Jon Lee, founder and CEO of Vizzio Technologies, said, “We are delighted to have had the opportunity to present the world’s largest digital twin of a country – Singapore – to Geo Connect Asia 2022’s guest of honour and members of ASEAN’s geospatial community at the event.
“Having the ability to update 3D models of cities regularly based on new imagery from satellites is crucial to business propositions. This level of recency was unheard of until now. We are proud to have pioneered an innovative way to turn 2D satellite images into 3D semantic models of buildings and cities, a game-changer for city planning, real estate, energy and utilities, training, security, defence and simulation.”
GCA is set to return on 15 and 16 March 2023 with full focus on a face-to-face show format, featuring more hands-on opportunities for visitors to experience different elements, modules and applications of geospatial data.
According to Montgomery Asia, GCA 2023 will also see the launch of a dedicated UAV-focused industry show, Drones Asia, covering an entire hall with several on-site showcases of drones, cameras, launch and recovery systems, and sensors, as well as the latest technology for satellite and remote sensing, launch and recovery systems, surveillance and reconnaissance, and training and simulation.
Below are videos of some of the latest technologies at GCA 2022.
