This year’s conference theme—No Barriers: Connected. Responsive. Prepared.—will be staged in a fictitious turn of events in which the 2012 Olympics, planned to be held in London, may instead come to Tampa. Geospatial vendors and Tampa officials will cooperate to bring together all the spatial information required for smooth and secure Olympic games using live, online open services.

“The opening session at annual conference is known for its fun and energy, and there’s no better place to get the industry pumped up about the power of open standards,” said Conference Chair Greg Buehler, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. “Many people will be seeing for the first time how removing barriers in the geospatial community can turn tedious processes that now take days to complete into simple and seamless tasks that take a fraction of the time.”

The interoperability during the demonstration will be completely real, and the latest technology will be used to work with data provided by Tampa officials. For more information on the event, visit www.gita.org/opening.html.

The conference will also feature 70 technical paper presentations, panel discussions, user forums, nine half-day seminars, networking socials, a job fair, a poster session, and a 100,000-square-foot product and services exhibition.

Online registration is now open. Registration fees start at $379. Exhibits-only passes are $25. Full details about the conference are available at the GITA Web site, located at www.gita.org, or by contacting GITA headquarters at 303-337-0513; e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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The mission of the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) is to provide excellence in education, information exchange, and applied research on the use and benefits of geospatial information and technology in business, utility, and government applications worldwide. Visit GITA on the Web at www.gita.org.