Herndon, Va., Nov. 28, 2011—The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) last month concluded its largest ever GEOINT Symposium, attracting 4,451 attendees and exhibitors from the defense, intelligence and homeland security communities. Those who attended the event in San Antonio, Texas, had a rare opportunity to explore the latest technologies from 252 exhibitors as well as hear from and meet with key Defense, Intelligence and Homeland Security Community leadership.
This year the GEOINT Symposium’s theme focused on “Forging Integrated Intelligence.” With this in mind, GEOINT 2011 offered a pre-symposium science and technology forum, 10 keynote speakers, three panel discussions, two lunchtime workshops and nine afternoon breakout sessions showcasing the importance of a multi-INT national security strategy. Discussions concentrated on human geography and socio-cultural dynamics, open source GEOINT, crowd-sourced intelligence, international commercial satellite imagery, cloud computing, the Defense Intelligence Information Enterprise, integrating intelligence, the implementation of NGA’s vision, homeland security applications, forging collaboration in the coalition environment and much more.
Keynote speakers included Gen. Keith B. Alexander, U.S. Army, commander, U.S. Cyber Command and director, NSA; Bruce Carlson, director, NRO; the Honorable James R. Clapper Jr., Director of National Intelligence; Gen. Douglas Fraser, U.S. Air Force, commander, U.S. Southern Command; Gen. C. Robert “Bob” Kehler, U.S. Air Force, commander, U.S. Strategic Command; Letitia A. Long, director, NGA; the Honorable Craig Fugute, administrator, FEMA, the Honorable Michael G. "Mike" Vickers, USDI; Rep. Mike Rogers, Mich-8, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee for Intelligence; and Rep. C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, Md-2, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee for Intelligence.
In addition to record attendance and exhibits, other notable highlights from GEOINT 2011 included a sold out Allder Golf Classic, which raised money for the USGIF Scholarship Program, and another successful Young Professionals Group (YPG) GeoHunt service project. With the help of almost 50 USGIF YPG members, the GeoHunt educational experience taught 50 local 5th and 6th grade students the basic principles of mapping and satellite imagery in an effort to excite them about a future in geospatial intelligence. GEOINT 2011 was also the stage for the announcement of the annual USGIF Awards Program recipients as well as the presentation of the Arthur C. Lundahl Lifetime Achievement Award to LTG Paul E. Menoher. Another high point of the week included USGIF member Sotera raising money for the Fisher House Foundation. GEOINT 2011 attendees bought $3,700 worth of raffle tickets from Sotera for the chance to win an original, patriotic painting from artist Stephen Fishwick. USGIF promoted the event and offered to more than match the amount in order to give Fisher House a total of $10,000.
To view highlights and all of the proceedings from GEOINT 2011, visit http://www.GEOINTv.com.
USGIF is a non-profit educational foundation dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and developing a stronger GEOINT Community with government, industry, academia, professional organizations and individuals whose mission is the development and application of geospatial intelligence to address national security challenges. For more information, please visit www.USGIF.org
