Spatial Industries Business Association
The Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards (APSEA) 2011 will be held in Canberra at the National Museum on 16th November 2011. This year's event will again be held in conjunction with the spatial@gov Conference. This year's event will be held in two parts with the industry project awards being presented at the spatial@gov Conference Dinner and the individual professional awards presented at the SSC Conference in New Zealand.
The SIBA Annual Report is a review of what your association has been doing over the past year, on your behalf. It is important that you take the time to read the Annual Report where you'll discover just how much the Association does and how it represents the industry at all levels of government. There are not many associations that can claim the significant successes that SIBA has achieve over the past ten years. Take a moment to reflect on what has been achieved not only by SIBA but by the industry as a whole over the past ten years - we have gone from relative obscurity to recognition of the value of spatial information and technologies at the highest levels of government and many key business sectors. We thank all our members for their ongoing support and we look forward to an exciting year ahead.
At the national and global level, location is at the heart of some of our most pressing problems: environmental degradation, climate change, crime and security, defence, border security, social welfare, asset management, controlling disease and pests, planning our cities, managing and recovering from natural hazards and disasters and coping with poverty and starvation.
Governments use location data to determine where and when their services are needed. Companies make loans and investments, build factories and offices, analyse risks and assign insurance rates according to location decisions. Farmers use location based information to boost their productivity in operations like controlled traffic farming and precision agriculture.
Spatial information also meets many of our personal needs, particularly those arising from our increasing desire for mobility while maintaining instant access to location information – from GPS navigation systems for our vehicles to the rapidly growing use of location based devices for personal communication.
The spatial industry provides the tools and methods to meet, represent, analyze and resolve these important activities and demands of our modern society. It is, therefore, crucial to the information age of the 21st century.
The latest economic study of the industry shows that it contributes up to $12.5 billion annually to Australia’s gross domestic product and that it delivers significant other financial and social benefits. A even more recent study revealed a significant impact on GDP, in excess of $1.2 billion per annum, in New Zealand.