This year’s conference theme is AGI GeoCommunity ’09 – Realising the Value of Place. At the conference we want to explore the key themes arising from the UK Location Strategy, the implementation of INSPIRE, the adoption of mashups within the mainstream of public and commercial sectors (you might even describe this as mashups from the bedroom to the enterprise), looking forward to the future, informal geography (which could mean whatever you want it to), data politics, return on investment methodologies and analysis and of course the wide range of case studies from which we can all learn. The call for papers has now been published and you can find more details here. Remember that presenters at the conference get a free day at the conference (but not accommodation) so get your synopsis in before the call closes on Mayday.

Here are a couple of comments about AGI GeoCommunity from last year:

....made this conference one of the most interesting I have been to in the last year.. – Geoff Zeiss, Autodesk

I really did feel that they were trying to get a sense of community, breaking down barriers between vendors and users – Jo Cook, Oxford Archaeology

It is attempting to merge the ‘neogeography’ folks with traditional GI folks. It is striving to understand how new approaches and old approaches can possibly work together. It is wanting to move beyond ‘neo’ and ‘Web 2.0…I think AGI made a big leap. A leap that others in the world have yet to discuss and think on – Jeff Thurston, Vector One

So put the dates in your diary, think about submitting a paper and look out for the early birds (no worms just discounts).

This year we want to open up the dialogue with you the members of our GeoCommunity. We are twittering at http://twitter.com/GeoCommunity follow us and share with the team your ideas, thoughts, grouches or whatever (even if you don’t twitter save the link). I will be blogging about the plans and preparations for the conference at http://GIScussions.blogspot.com and of course you can find program details, registration and loads of other information at the AGI website www.agi.org.uk and you can mail me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you don’t want to receive future mail updates about AGI GeoCommunity ’09 just mail me and I will ensure you are removed from our list and if you have friends or colleagues who want to be included in these mailings tell them to mail me.

I look forward to meeting you in Stratford-upon-Avon this year.