Defra

The Defra ‘family’ geographic information forum was held on 1 & 2 March, hosted by the Defra Geographic Information Co-ordination Team, part of Defra’s Chief Information Officer Directorate. The event proved very popular, with around one hundred attendees from across the Defra family of organisations. The aims of the GI Forum were to raise awareness of and invite feedback on high-level GI related initiatives, provide the opportunity for GI users across the Defra family to demonstrate their own GI work, and to create a community of GI users across the Defra family.

The event was opened by Andrew Burchell, Director General of Defra’s Service Transformation Group, who emphasised the importance attached to the use of GI across the wider Defra family. The high-level issues raised included the Defra family GI Strategy refresh, the Pan Government Agreement, the ‘Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe’ Directive (INSPIRE), and the ‘Shared Spatial Information Services’ application. A wide range of family members provided overviews of the use of GI in their own organisations through lunchtime case studies and afternoon presentations.

The Forum provided an opportunity for GI users to hear about high level initiatives such as the INSPIRE Directive, and to contribute feedback on the implications of these initiatives across the spectrum of the Defra family. The Forum also presented an opportunity to further develop a sense of community amongst GI users, with the high level of attendance demonstrating interest and commitment to the use of GI across the Defra family. Audience feedback on the material presented has already been used to inform the direction of the GI Strategy refresh and the means by which the INSPIRE Directive should be implemented. Feedback will also influence future communication with the GI user community across the Defra family.

A record of the GI Forum has been produced to detail the presentations made over the course of the two days, and to record the feedback provided by attendees through interactive exercises.  The document also details some actions that will be carried forward by the Defra GI Co-ordination Team.

Please contact SPIRE team with any queries related to the event, or to register your interest in any future GI Forum.