On Thursday the 25th of September, Level One of the NSW Leagues Club was filled with the sounds of approximately 40 spatial industry professionals making new contacts and catching up with old friends. Members of the SSI and ISNSW were taking advantage of the opportunity to network with each other and members of the NSW Board of Surveying & Spatial Information (BOSSI).

The event was jointly hosted by BOSSI and SSI NSW and judged by all to be a resounding success. One of the highlights of the night was seeing inter-generational barriers dissolve, with YP’s and experienced professionals all talking enthusiastically and often resenting the sound of the bell that indicated the next rotation had arrived.

The success of this event can be attributed to the collaborative approach taken by the involved organisations and talk of running the event again next year has already begun. If participants have any feedback on their experiences on the night please send it to [yp.nsw AT spatialsciences.org.au].

As outlined in the SSI NSW Strategic Plan durable partnerships are high priority where benefits vest in SSI members, now and in the future. On August 27, Dennis Puniard, David Bruce and I (representing SSI) met with Greg Goodman and Jonathan Saxon (representing ISNSW) to discuss the potential for joint service provision to surveying and spatial professionals in NSW. Initial outcomes are very positive and we share a vision for unity in the profession.

The Spatial Sciences Institute in NSW is now building an exciting momentum that you will notice over the coming months. As I joined the committee in February this year the task was ahead of us to recruit some new faces into your volunteer regional committee and reenergise the existing and experienced members.

SSI NSW now has an RSS feed (click here if you're not sure what that means). You can access the feed below:

http://www.spatialsciences.org/nsw/rss.xml

RSS – which stands for Really Simple Syndication - is an easy way to view updates to the SSI NSW web page. You will need an aggregator (win / mac) to paste our feed link into so you are notified about updates, events and reviews as we post them.

Enjoy!

Think your 22” widescreen dual monitors are impressive? Were you amazed by the RTA Traffic Control Centre in Redfern that you visited as part of the OZRI 2007 site visits? Well...in David Bowie’s words ‘take your protein pills and put your helmet on’ as you are about to step into a scene of NASA’s Mission Control Centre.  I’m talking about a circular control room attended by 50 odd staff crowned with two 25sqm overhead screens simultaneously running 8 customised GIS applications, 2 full time GIS analysts at its base energetically processing the most recent data sent across from BOM, satellite imagery and many more. If you thought the dollars for impressive GIS soft- and hardware applications are in the private industry – stand corrected!

Do you know individuals or organisations worthy of an award for excellence in surveying or spatial information?

Expressions of interest in this years NSW Excellence in Surveying and Spatial Information Awards close 31st May. Registration via http://www.acsnsw.com.au/awards_registration.html

Or

see the attached brochure. With entries closing Monday 28th July