What is it?

Please attend the 3rd International MapWindow GIS Conference with the DotSpatial, SharpMap, OSGeo DotNet and OSGeo.nl Community!

Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, Velp, The Netherlands
25-28 June 2012

This will be an excellent opportunity to participate in workshops, present your projects, and be an integral part of the open source GIS community!

Representatives and participants from all open source GIS software projects are invited! While the conference is being sponsored by MapWindow and OSGeo DotNet, we view this as a true FOSS4G event and invite anyone interested in Open Source Geospatial to join us!

Who should attend? Anyone interested in the MapWindow project or related OSGeo .NET projects including DotSpatial, NTS, SharpMap, Whitebox and others.
We will also give opportunities to non-.NET OSGeo projects, like PostGIS, Geoserver, OpenLayers.

Be sure to attend this conference if you are an end user of the MapWindow Desktop Application or a programmer using the MapWindow or DotSpatial libraries in your own software, or if you are a student or educator looking for an easy to install, easy to use free GIS.

About MapWindow GIS

The open source MapWindow GIS project is the most widely used open source GIS specifically for the Windows operating system.

Built tightly on the Microsoft .NET Framework, MapWindow is closely integrated with Windows to give users a seamless end-user experience. MapWindow is free and the source code and libraries are available for use by third party developers of GIS software. MapWindow has over 7000 downloads per month, translations in multiple languages, and a worldwide development team.

DotSpatial includes work by the MapWindow team on a .NET only (C#) programmer API (previously called the MapWindow 6 project) now expanded to include a number of other open source components. DotSpatial aspires to be an alternative to ESRI's ArcObjects programming API.

Because the MapWindow 2012 conference has been expanded to include all OSGeo (DotNet) projects, you will have the opportunity to learn more about many other interesting open source GIS efforts at this meeting.

Conference Purpose

This conference will serve a number of purposes for different participants:

• Attend workshops on the use of MapWindow GIS and developer workshops on plugin authoring, MapWinGIS ActiveX programming, and building custom applicatins with DotSpatial .NET libraries
• Learn about SharpMap, GeoAPI and other DotNet programmer libraries
• Give a presentation on your own work using any of these components and tools and to share ideas and experiences with the rest of the community
• Meet with all of the key players in the OSGeo community, share your ideas and insights
• Find opportunities to collaborate with other users and developers, build your business contacts in the open source GIS community, and be an integral member of the project teams as a user and/or developer

Preliminary Conference Agenda

• Day 1:Monday, 25 June 2012 - Plenary sessions including introduction of the various projects and key team members. General session including technical presentations.
• Day 2:Tuesday, 26 June 2012 – Concurrent workshops on different projects and topics.
• Day 3:Wednesday, 27 June 2012 – Concurrent workshops on different project and topics.
• Day 4:Thursday, 28 June 2012 – Codesprint and individual project and community meetings. At the Xchange you can meet the top of GIS businesses.

Each day will also include ample opportunities for networking and viewing/giving software demos. There will also be a conference BBQ on Tuesday evening (price included in registration), a guest brunch on Tuesday morning (included in guest registration) and a closing drink on Thursday evening (price also included).

Conference Venue

The conference will be held at the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, Velp, The Netherlands. This university has a curriculum focused on nature and environment, human and animal health and responsible entrepreneurship.

Velp is near Arnhem which is located between Düsseldorf Airport (Germany) and Amsterdam Airport and has a large railway station and one of the most beautiful zoos in Europe! (see www.burgerszoo.nl).

Some of the conference meetings will be held in the historic Old Chapel on the Larenstein campus. We will also use computer labs for workshops and expect to have a fantastic meeting at the state of the art facilities at this university.

Arrangements are being made with hotels in the vicinity to give a discounted rate for conference attendees. Please watch the Venue page for more information on accomodations as it becomes available.

Important Dates

• December 24, 2011- Call for abstracts for presentations and workshops is open.
• Februari 13, 2012- Conference registration opens.
• March 31, 2012- Deadline for abstracts for presentations and workshops.
• April 30, 2012- Early registration ends. After this, regular registration rates apply.
• June 25-28, 2012- MapWindow 2012, Arnhem, The Netherlands!

Sponsors

Financial and in-kind sponsorship is provided to this conference by a number of individuals and organizations listed on the sponsor page.

We have the following specific sponsorship opportunities available:

Banquet Sponsor (€2000): This is the top sponsorship opportunity at the conference. As Banquet Sponsor, your organization will be featured in the conference program, on the conference web page, and also on a banner and/or materials at the banquet room.

Break Sponsor (€500): With multiple snack/coffee breaks (morning and afternoon each day), a total of six Break Sponsor opportunities exist. As a Break Sponsor, your organization will be featured in the conference program, on the conference web page, and on a banner and/or materials at the breaks.

Lunch Sponsor (€500): With each day a lunch, a total of four Lunch Sponsor opportunities exist. As a Lunch Sponsor, your organization will be featured in the conference program, on the conference web page, and on a banner and/or materials at the lunch.

Of course partially sponsoring is also possible. Go to the sponsor page for more information.
And joining the Xchange will also help this conference.

Stay Informed

Stay informed about the conference by joining the conference mailing list: