On 17 April 2023, the Berlin-Brandenburg GeoInformation Industry Association celebrated its 20th anniversary with a special evening event staged in the Kutschstall of the House of Brandenburg-Prussian History. The event provided a great opportunity to look back on 20 years of successful work. Numerous guests, including representatives from business, science and administration, attended the inspiring get-together, which was enriched by greetings and speeches from the Minister of the Interior and for Municipal Affairs of the State of Brandenburg, Mr Michael Stübgen, the President of the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy, Prof. Dr Paul Becker, and the Head of the Automotive Agency of Lower Saxony, Dr Anna Meincke.
On the second day a variety of formats including talks, panel discussions and workshops were held to continue the discussions. Among others, Karsten Kolbe, Head of Guarantees at Bürgschaftsbank Brandenburg GmbH, Michael Bültmann, Managing Director HERE Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, and Dr Jackie Ma, Group Leader Applied Machine Learning at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute, highlighted the central topics of innovation cooperation. Keynote speeches by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Döllner from the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering gGmbH and Dr. Julia Danckwert from weißensee kunsthochschule berlin as well as parallel sessions on current projects and success stories from the ZIM innovation networks risKI, DigiShip and SuNinLand and a GEOkomm Table Talk rounded off the programme.
The Chairman of the Board of GEOkomm e.V., Dr. Peter A. Hecker, emphasised: “The 20th anniversary and the GEOkomm Network & Innovation Summit 2023 were a complete success and have shown how important an exchange between the players in the geoinformation industry is in order to create forward-looking solutions and innovations. We thank all participants, speakers and sponsors for their commitment and are already looking forward to future events of the association, which will be designed in the interest of our members.” Participants and guests praised not only the professional organisation and inspiring presentations, but also the opportunity for networking. The event days provided an excellent platform for the exchange and discussion of current topics and trends in the industry and beyond.
With the events on 17 and 18 April 2023, the Association of the GeoInformation Industry Berlin-Brandenburg, GEOkomm e.V., once again proved its role as an innovation service provider and stakeholder in the industry. By building innovation networks of stakeholders from business, science and administration, GEOkomm e.V. contributes significantly to the promotion of cooperation, knowledge transfer and innovation in the geo-information industry. GEOkomm e.V. will continue to work on the development of future-oriented technologies and application-oriented services and thus promote the sector as a whole.