GDEST 2008 conference: presentation

I made a presentation to the US and African Scientists at the GDEST 2008 conference on Geospatial Sciences for Sustainable Development, which was held on the 17-19 March in Cape Town. The conference is sponsored by the US Department of State.

GDEST 2008 (Global Dialogues on Emerging Science and Technology): GEOSPATIAL SCIENCES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA is a conference that was attended by 98 participants from the US and Africa who engaged in geospatial science and technology analysis and applications. The overall objective of the conference is to engender increased collaboration between and among US and Africa scientists in a number of applied areas using geospatial science, information and technology. It had about 35 presentations, panel discussions and workshops over the three-day period of the conference.

As my organisation hosted an exhibition stall at the conference, we (the exhibitors) were requested to make Technology Showcase presentation to the audience that included the Geographer of the United States, Dr Lee Schwartz. I enjoyed every moment of the presentation.

Happy GIS Day, Western Cape

Yesterday, the 25th October I led my task team from our organisation to host what became a successful GIS Day event. Every year during November, all over the world, most GIS (Geographic Information Systems) users and vendors open up their doors to schools, businesses, and the general public to showcase real-world applications of this important technology.

The International GIS Day 2007 will be celebrated on Wednesday, 14 November during Geography Awareness Week.

Our organisation hosted the Departmental GIS Day event whose theme was "GIS Mapping 4 Climate Change" , in October, to kickstart the Climate Change Education and Awareness Programme to 109 target Schools in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.

16 of the 109 Schools attended. Members of various Environmental NGO’s and CBO’s as well as officials from all the Provincial Government Departments attended. CapeNature and the Western Cape Branch of the Geo-information Society of South Africa (WC GISSA) partook in the GIS Day event.

The event started by Drama, Dance and Poetry performance by a Time Theatre Group, followed by the Opening Address by MEC of Environment, Planning and Economic Development, Ms Tasneem Essop. Presentations were made on the Western Cape Climate Change Response Strategy and Action Plan, GIS application on Disaster Management.

The School learners afterwards participated in interactive activities with Maptrix, MapAware, GPS Treasure Hunt, and the GIS touchscreen kiosk.

Woolworths and Africon sponsored the catering for the event!

Kiosk with GIS and Climate Change

For the last 12 months I have been motivating to my managers to acquire an information kiosk for branding the Government Department. Today I finally received the kiosk from Dicoll Interactive (service provider based in Johannesburg).

I personally created with the structure and the content for the kiosk which includes the GIS Viewer Map, Climate change Quiz, Videos, Powerpoint presentation, and other text information.

See the kiosk pic...

My article on SDI-Africa newsletter

I have recently submitted an article about "The Sustainability Atlas of the Western Cape 2006" (a project that I co-facilitated)on the SDI-Africa newsletter. You can download the October newsletter at

http://www.gsdi.org/newsletters.asp