Premiere of Google Earth & Maps enterprise solutions, first-hand case-studies of Smart Grid deployments in the US, premiere of the upcoming 4.3 releases of Smallworld Network Inventory (both PNI & LNI), numerous partners and guest lectures – these were the key points of the 14th International “Smart Geospatial Solutions 2012” Conference.

 

The annual Globema conference took place on 30-31 May in Stare Jablonki, Poland. It gathered over 200 participants from the telecommunications, energy and utilities sectors, which was a record-high attendance. In total, 30 papers were delivered and 6 product workshops were held.

 

 

This year's conference began with FME World Tour Poland workshop along with the live demos of Field Force Automation (FFA), workforce management system, and ELGrid, a SmartGrid class solution which optimizes power network operations and investments. All of these products have already gained recognition among Globema customers and are currently in use or being implemented in various companies.

 

Technical sessions included many case studies and examples of the use of network & workforce management systems in utilities and telecommunications. More than half of the papers at the conference were delivered by the users of Globema’s solutions from both Polish and foreign companies (including Netia, Emitel, Exatel, Dalkia, MPEC Kraków, TeliaSonera Denmark and others).

 

The conference ended with another round of workshops. FTTx Design & Maintenance tools & best approach were presented at the telecommunications technical track. A latest version (420.5) of DH.GIS – a heating network management system, was showcased for the heating network operators. Matt Toon from Google along with Globema’s experts presented an overview and the live demo of Google Maps4Business and Google Maps Engine.

 

 

The key-note presentations drew significant attention among the conference participants. Neil Gyte, Enterprise Geo Lead EMEA from Google, introduced Google GEO products for enterprise customers on the Polish market. Bartosz Wojszczyk, Managing Director, Global Business Growth & Strategy from GE Energy, shared his experiences & expertise in large-scale implementations of SmartGrid in the U.S. Conference guests were also impressed by first-hand examples of operational savings that result from the use of workforce management (FFA) system.

 

The partnership between Globema and Google was announced during the first day of the event. Globema extended company’s portfolio of geospatial solutions with Google GEO Enterprise products. Google has gained the Poland’s GIS market leader as a new partner and a value-added reseller.

 

The conference partners, including Motorola, Astor Consulting, Aplikom, Procesy Inwestycyjne (Investment Processes), Google & GE Energy presented their products and solutions during the sessions and at the exhibition accompanying the conference. The exhibition hall was also a place where every conference attendee had a chance to see and test most of the applications and solutions from Globema’s portfolio under the guidance of company’s experts.

 

 

The event also included a networking program, this year referring to EURO 2012 Football Championships. The greatest excitement was caused by the mega table-football tournament - full size version of the traditional table-football, where participants are attached to the bars via a harnessed belt. 8 teams & over 50 people participated in this fun & action packed contest.

 

Feedback from participants of the conference was very positive. The 14th edition of this well-established event was an excellent opportunity to share experiences and discuss the future challenges of telecommunications & utilities.