The keystone event for the ASEAN geospatial community, Geo Connect Asia (GCA) will be held in Singapore this year in a prototype hybrid format, providing a crucial springboard to recovery and growth for the regional geospatial community and the MICE industry, as the ASEAN economies recover from the impact of the pandemic. Geo Connect Asia 2021 will comprise both a physical event on 24th and 25th March 2021 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, as well as a virtual Geo Connect Asia 2021 for delegates and visitors to meet in person and online. The event is expected to welcome close to 1,000 business visitors, delegates and speakers onsite, and up to 1,200 additional virtual attendees.
Southeast Asia’s highly anticipated flagship geospatial and location intelligence event, Geo Connect Asia 2021 will also be the first large-scale hybrid event of the year in Singapore, following the successful pilot of TravelRevive in November 2020. GCA 2021 is piloting the ‘hybrid event’ prototype developed by the Singapore Together Alliance for Action (AfA) on Enabling Safe and Innovative Visitor Experiences under the Emerging Stronger Taskforce (EST[1]).
The Geo Connect Asia 2021 Conference themed “Mapping the data-driven future economy,” will be led by high-level speakers and thought leaders from across the global geospatial industry. The event will provide a strategic and collaborative platform for industry professionals, government agencies, start-ups and more, through a diverse agenda of keynote addresses, plenary sessions, and roundtables. The first plenary session of the Geo Connect Asia 2021 Conference will examine how geospatial solutions can support ASEAN economies in mounting a sustainable recovery from the pandemic. Titled, “Geospatial Planning & Solutions; the Key to a Robust & Sustainable Recovery”, the session will be moderated by Ng Siau Yong, Director, Geospatial & Data Division & Chief Data Officer at the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), and features a keynote speech by Hwang Yu-Ning, Chief Planner & Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
Through various strategies such as a ‘green recovery’, building epidemic-resistant smart cities, and improving infrastructure across geographies, geospatial technology and solutions could help Singapore and other countries successfully recover from the pandemic – with Geo Connect Asia playing a crucial role at the heart of the ASEAN geospatial community. A ‘green recovery’ will reduce emissions, with low-carbon economies to providing more jobs and clean growth, reversing the effects of high-carbon infrastructure. For instance, transitioning to renewable energy, building electric vehicle charging networks, remodelling cities to make them easier to walk and cycle, planting trees and building flood defences are all necessary for a move to a low-carbon economy, and all are labour-intensive – thus providing jobs and aiding in economic recovery from Covid-19.
During the pandemic, cities focused on digital communication tools and upskilling of workers as working from home became the norm. Moving forward, smart cities must look towards cloud and infrastructure optimization, as-a-service deployments and data analysis to help drive forward-looking decisions and future-proof a city against the next pandemic. Improving infrastructure will also be crucial to recovery from the pandemic, particularly in the ASEAN region.
This will require the wider adoption of smart and digital solutions, including geospatial and location intelligence. Indeed, geospatial technologies and solutions may be even more critical to the emerging economies of ASEAN, as supply chains may break down with country- and economy-wide lockdowns.
Other key topics at the GCA 2021 Conference include:
● On the Move: Smart Transportation for Asia’s Dynamic Urban Landscapes
● Digital Twins: Transforming the Dynamics of Connected Infrastructure Planning
● Easily Accessible Data for the Future of Geospatial Planning
● Building resilience and sustainability into ASEAN geospatial planning
● Harnessing the power of satellite imagery for a sustainable future
● Smarter Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities
● Sustainable and Liveable Cities
● Putting 5G to Work: Intelligent Use Cases for ASEAN
Rupert Owen, Montgomery Asia – Geo Connect Asia Co-founder, said, “The 2021 event will be the culmination of two years of exploration and focus in guiding the development of a world-leading hybrid platform for the geospatial and location intelligence markets in Asia. We are very grateful for the unwavering commitment of our sponsors, supporting organisations and the broader geospatial industry community. With more than 40 leading speakers and panellists the conference provides a very exciting mix of thought leadership, industry insights and educational opportunities for membership associations.
The co-operation of the Singapore Tourism Board and Singapore Land Authority has been critical to the staging of the event and we look forward to creating an annual event with a global impact to reflect the dynamism of the Asian geospatial ecosystem.”
Event organiser Montgomery Asia is working closely with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to ensure the health and safety of attendees at Geo Connect Asia 2021 through the implementation of Safe Management Measures (SMM) such as safe distancing, crowd density control and the use of TraceTogether to facilitate contact tracing for international visitors.
GCA 2021 will feature Geo Suites which are ballrooms converted into “exhibition booths”. Each Geo Suite will cater to a single exhibitor who can display their products and provide demonstrations on a stage, and hold business meetings in pods located within the Suite. Geo Suites will replace a typical trade show floor as the main mode of interaction, and help to minimise intermingling between cohorts of attendees. Besides meeting pods to enable 1-to-1 meetings between exhibitors and attendees, larger meeting pods that are double in size compared to those used at TravelRevive will also be piloted at GCA to cater to 2-to-2 meetings. Both virtual and in-person attendees will also be treated to an enhanced digital experience. They can schedule business meetings prior to the event, and continue their engagements after the show.
Such a format will enhance attendees’ experience with its mix of virtual and physical elements while retaining a degree of interaction that is typical of a regular trade show, but in a much safer setting that minimises the risk of Covid-19 infection.
Andrew Phua, Executive Director of Exhibitions & Conferences at the Singapore Tourism Board, said, “As Singapore’s first large-scale hybrid event of the year, Geo Connect Asia 2021 underlines our continued role as a key hub for international trade events. It also pushes new boundaries in innovation and safe events, marking an important next step for Singapore as we continue to test and scale such hybrid formats. We look forward to hosting more of such events in Singapore, and to provide a safe and fulfilling experience for all our visitors.”
