Jans Aasman started his career as an experimental and cognitive psychologist, earning his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science. Dr. Aasman has spent most of his professional life in telecommunications research, specializing in intelligent user interfaces and applied artificial intelligence projects. Dr. Aasman is currently the CEO of Franz Inc., the leading supplier of RDF database products that provide the storage layer for powerful reasoning and ontology modeling capabilities for Semantic Web applications.

Sherif has been working with Location based technologies for over 15 years, 10 years of which has been with MapInfo (now part of Pitney Bowes). He has worked in Product Development in various roles and capacities which include as Software Architect & Development Manager among others. In the last couple of years Sherif has been working in the Advanced Concepts and Technologies group (research arm of Pitney Bowes) as an Architect and focuses on defining, developing and prototyping new concepts and ideas in the Location Intelligence domain.

Salvatore is a researcher in GIS and Geomarketing at the University of Udine, lecturer in Italian (Udine, Modena, Treviso, Venice, Florence) and foreign (East London, Uppsala, Caen, Murcia, Sofia, Tunis and Cairo) universities. He is also CEO of Udine Servizi SPA, a company owned by the municipality, for public transport projects. He is member of CARTESIO (Research Centre in GIS and Remote Sensing), and of the Didactic Council for the Masters in GIS of the University of Udine. He is currently working on GIS projects in the geomarketing and logistic filed.

Dr. Thierry Badard is CTO of Spatialytics, a new company in geospatial BI. He is also professor at Laval University (Canada) where he heads the GeoSOA research group. He has more than 13 years of experience and acts as a reviewer for several international journals and conferences and presents an important record of innovative contributions. He is also actively involved in the geospatial free and open source community (OSGeo). For further details, please visit http://geosoa.scg.ulaval.ca.

Ziv Baum is a co-founder and CEO of Zipano Technologies, a new Pittsburgh-based startup company, which is a spin-off from the Mobile Commerce Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. As the CEO of Zipano, Ziv aspires to help users of social networking sites and other information sharing services (including location sharing applications) to better control and manage who they share their personal information with. Prior to Zipano, Ziv had the opportunity to do product development and business strategy roles with Qualcomm, working on some of the most exciting mobile technologies being developed, including mobile TV, wireless-HD and next generation WiFi networks. Ziv holds an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at CMU and a Bachelor degree in Computer and Software Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Chris Becwar has worked in the satellite and aerial imagery business for eight years, first with GlobeXplorer and now with DigitalGlobe. He currently focuses on product marketing and enterprise applications for infrastructure and government. Chris holds an MBA from St. Mary’s and lives in the San Francisco bay area.

Arthur spent 25 years managing the architecture, design and development of large spatial software systems for Wild Heerbrugg, Prime Computer, Computervision, Unisys and MapInfo then decided to get a life and started MapInfo’s Research Department. That department was morphed into the Advanced Development Department when it was established that useful research was even more effective when it was illustrated with prototypes. After MapInfo was acquired by Pitney Bowes, Arthur took over AC&T for Pitney Bowes.

Paul Bissett is the co-founder and CEO of WeoGeo, Inc., a company focused on managing and monetizing your digital mapping assets. WeoGeo's products include WeoGeo Market (www.WeoGeo.com), a one-stop geo-content marketplace, and WeoGeo Server (Server.WeoGeo.com), a network appliance for the archival, discovery, and delivery of an enterprise's geo-content. Paul has also founded and served as the Executive Director of the Florida Environmental Research Institute (FERI). For the past nine years, FERI has been at the nexus of basic and applied remote sensing and computational science. Bissett received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Marine Science from the University of South Florida, a CFA from the Institute of Charter Financial Analysts, and a B.S. in Finance and Economics from the University of Florida. He is an author on nearly 40 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of oceanography and remote sensing.

Joel Campbell joined GeoEye in the summer of 2007 as the Senior Director of Product Management, responsible for product innovation, management, pricing, positioning and marketing. Joel has nearly 20 years of experience in all aspects of business development in the geospatial services profession. Most recently he served as Vice President and General Manger of Definiens, Inc. Definiens is a German software company specializing in image analysis in addition to previously serving as the Director of US sales for ESRI, the world’s leading GIS software provider. Joel has also operated his own consulting firm focused on business development and sales training for companies in the Geospatial industry. Joel has been a feature speaker, lecturer and trainer for many GIS organizations around the world.

Tom Citriniti has been with Pitney Bowes Business Insight for 12 years. He has been a development lead for MapInfo Professional, and one of the main architects for MapXtreme 2008. Tom is currently a Product Evangelist and spends his time conveying how best to utilize PBBI products in enterprise solutions. Tom has a Masters Degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he taught a 3D visualization course. Tom specializes in distributed architectures and enterprise spatial applications.

Mike leads SpatialKey’s product management and marketing efforts. He has been instrumental in working with customers to refine the product concept and develop requirements. Prior to joining the SpatialKey team Mr. Connor has led product management and marketing efforts for industry leaders such as Apple, Silicon Graphics and Adobe.

Steven has experience of working with GIS in both the public and private sectors, academic research, NGOs and as an independent consultant. Steven spent time in South America teaching GIS for a rainforest conservation organization in Brazil. In the UK he has continued to be active developing Web maps, with GIS consultancy ‘GeoEnable’. He is now achieving his vision to achieve convergence of CAD/GIS/3D technologies and survey activities across ‘Tube Lines’ in London.

Di-Ann is a neogeography pioneer, employing all means to increase the worlds' citizen mappers. Di-Ann is Co-Founder and Chairman of Platial, The People's Atlas and now Community Geographer at Waze, crowd-sourced navigation and live mapping. Di-Ann believes social mapping will be a critical tool for cultural diplomacy.

Dr. Feldman is the CEO of Space-Time Insight, specializing in 3D, real-time geospatial analysis of a utility's operating status overlaid on satellite imagery for fast, intuitive action. Formerly the Senior Vice President of Strategy at Virsa Systems, he joined SAP Labs as a Sr. Vice President in the Product & Technology Group, after negotiating the sale of Virsa to SAP. Earlier, he was a partner and global practice leader for merger and acquisition consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers. As president of the Rubicon Group, and later Rubicon Pacific Trading, he specialized in transactions between the US and Asia. A frequently quoted speaker, his best-selling book on accelerating business transitions, "Five Frogs on a Log," has sold over 61,000 copies in six languages.

Elissa Fink is Tableau Software’s Vice President of Marketing. With 20+ years helping companies improve their marketing operations through applied data analysis, Elissa has held executive positions in marketing, business strategy, product management, and product development. Prior to Tableau, Elissa was EVP Marketing at IXI Corporation, a firm specializing in marketing information. She has also served in executive positions at Tele Atlas, TopTier Software, and Claritas, Inc. Elissa also spent time selling advertising for the Wall Street Journal. Elissa holds a B.A. from Santa Clara University and an MBA in Marketing and Decision Systems from the University of Southern California.

Mike Frey has been a Principal Architect at NAVTEQ for nine years, evangelizing Location Based Systems, grid computing, and cloud computing. He is one of the architects behind the current map editing environment, which supports thousands of map editors worldwide, concurrently updating the world’s leading digital maps. He is a member of the JSR 293 Location API expert group. Prior to joining NAVTEQ, Mike led teams developing interest rate derivatives software and trading systems, graphical cellular testing software, and fighter simulators.

Mike Frizzell is a consultant with Cogent Company in Dallas, Texas. Although relatively new to the “business” world, he brings five years of experience in modelling, simulation and analysis (MS&A) and geographic information systems from the defense industry. With this strong analysis background, he has his sights set on simplifying Location Intelligence to useful and regular part of business. When not fighting against Bing, Google Earth/Maps, and BI platforms, you’ll find him renovating the house, woodworking, or kicking a soccer ball on Sunday afternoon.

Sean Gorman founded FortiusOne in 2005 to bring advanced geospatial technologies to market. Dr. Gorman is a recognized expert in geospatial analysis and visualization. He has been featured around the world in media such as Wired, Der Spiegel, and CNN, and his expertise is sought after by organizations such as the Critical Infrastructure Task Force and the Homeland Security Advisory Council. He brings over 10 years of experience at the forefront of the geospatial revolution as a researcher, neogeography practitioner and entrepreneur to FortiusOne.

David Hemphill is the CTO at ObjectFX and is responsible for aligning the product's architecture with the business vision. David has over 17 years of experience in the information technology field as an architect and developer. He has written numerous articles on mobile and wireless computing and is the co-author of Java 2 Micro Edition (Manning Publications). David is also a member of the expert group that created the Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer exam.

Dr. Scott Hotes is the CTO and VP of Engineering at WaveMarket, Inc., a market leader in location data aggregation and privacy management. Before joining WaveMarket, Dr. Hotes worked in the area of wireless security at the US Department of Defense and with the Networking Technologies division of Silicon Graphics.

Wayne Kocina, a GIS veteran with twenty years of experience in the geospatial industry, founded GeoWize in 2003, and has consulted for such companies as Target, Big O Tires, Smiling Moose Deli, US-West, Qwest, & numerous local economic development programs across the nation. His company’s mission is to give the little guy the big guy competitive advantage with the same geospatial information, analysis, and processes that the big guys use.

Robert Laudati is the Director of Marketing for Trimble’s Mapping & GIS Division, which is focused on providing geo-enabled solutions for the mobile workforce. In this role, Mr. Laudati is responsible for strategic marketing as well as all inbound and outbound marketing initiatives for the division. His experience spans over 20 years in the geospatial industry, and prior to joining Trimble he held positions in product management, product marketing, and software development at Autodesk, GE Energy, and Smallworld Systems. Mr. Laudati holds an MBA from the University of Denver, a master’s degree from Stanford University, and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University.

Dale Lutz is the co-founder and vice president of Development for Safe Software Inc., in Surrey, Canada. With business partner Don Murray, Dale created Safe’s FME platform, the recognized standard in spatial ETL. With Dale’s background as a Computer Science Honors graduate and a Masters recipient with specialty in Usability for Software Technology from the University of Alberta, Dale uses his 20 years experience in software to guide core development of FME and its integration into key GIS applications. He is an active presenter at conferences internationally, sharing his expertise for making data accessible to those who need it.

Ajay Mathur was born in India where he completed his Bachelor's degree in English and Logical Sciences at St. Stephen's College in New Dehli. He has been active in the software industry since moving to Switzerland in 1975 and is now a Swiss citizen. He has successfully established and developed businesses for listed software companies in the German speaking DACH region of Europe and has been recognized for outstanding software sales in Europe. Ajay founded Axes Systems in the early 1990's and is responsible for initial development design of Axes Systems' core product axpand. He continues to shape the company's strategy and provide vision for the company's current award-winning innovation.

Over the past five years, Myles has transformed Immersive Media from an early stage technology developer into the world leader in 360-degree, full motion, interactive video. Under Myles' leadership, Immersive Media has launched many industry firsts, including the development of the Dodeca® 2360, a patented camera with 11 lenses that allows for unsurpassed viewing – up, down and all around – of any environment. Myles played a significant role in the creation and development of Street View visual mapping technology, which allows website visitors to drop down onto a street and visually discover the detailed area around that address.

With over 18 years experience in the commercial GIS and CRM markets Bill McNeil is an industry pioneer. In the early ‘90s he founded, ran and eventually sold MapLinx Corporation. In 1995 he started and sold Chrona Software, a consumer GIS startup, to ESRI. After almost 14 years of managing the BusinessMAP group McNeil has left ESRI to start another GIS/LBS company. He will be sharing his experiences on what consumer GIS applications were profitable and how he sees these migrating to the LBS market.

Philip O’Doherty has been Chief Executive Officer of eSpatial since 2003. Philip has led the company’s focus on Web GIS solutions and provided the vision for the company’s launch of a fully functional SaaS GIS solution. Philip joined eSpatial from private equity investment firm, International Investment & Underwriting (IIU). Prior to IIU he was Group Finance Manager at Dublin Airport Authority. Philip has over 30 years’ business experience across a diverse set of industries. Philip is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants has a Masters in Finance from Dublin City University, an MSc in Management Practice from Trinity College Dublin and has completed a one-year Stanford Leadership for Growth program.

Dr. Carl Reed is currently the Chief Technology Officer and an Executive Director of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC). The OGC is an international standards organization that is leading the development of standards for geospatial and location based services. Reed’s responsibilities include facilitation of the OGC standards process, chairing the OGC Planning Committee and Architecture Board, and tracking future market and technology trends that impact standards development.

Ed Roworth has 14 years experience with the design and implementation of GIS and related technologies. He brings an expert understanding of the technical and organizational requirements needed to successfully implement complex information systems having designed and deployed systems for Government and Private sector clients. In his role as Solutions Architect, Ed works directly with clients to understand their business needs and architect best fit technology and information system solutions.

Todd Schmitt has been with Tele Atlas since 1998. Over the last 11 years, he has performed a number of roles in project, product, and marketing management, including bringing several new products to market. Throughout his career at Tele Atlas, Todd has worked closely with clients in a variety of industries including tool providers and application developers, business intelligence, risk management, banking, demographics, utilities, state governments, and telcos.

Scott Sedlik is responsible for strategic marketing and product management at INRIX. INRIX is the leading provider of traffic and navigation services to companies including the Ford Motor Company, MapQuest, and TomTom. Scott has 20 years of experience in building leadership positions with early-stage public and startup companies in emerging markets. He holds a MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Since 2004, Nigel has been responsible for developing and executing Trillium Software’s go-to-market business strategy for its geocoding solutions, including Global Locator. Previously, he held senior-level positions at GB Group, a CRM solutions company, and Market Location, a direct marketing software and solutions organization. Nigel’s enthusiasm for illustrating the ROI associated with geolocation is trumped only by his enthusiasm for cricket.

Garth Tissington has been a developer of Geospatial software solutions for more than 15 years. He has worked on challenging projects in China, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Canada and the USA. Currently, Mr. Tissington is Senior G.I.S. Project manager for Atheeb Intergraph Saudi Company as is working to bring GeoSpatial harmony to the Municipality of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Robert Uleman is a Technical Sales specialist at IBM Information Management, focusing on spatial and spatiotemporal technologies as well as stream computing. He has over 20 years of experience in software product development and evangelism, ranging from image processing and GIS to Object-Relational database extensions. Before going into the field, he was engineering manager for the geospatial extensions in the Informix database. Robert is IBM's technical representative at the Open Geospatial Consortium.

Ian White is Founder and CEO of Urban Mapping LLC, where he maintains responsibility for product development and overall growth of the company. He has 10 years experience in marketing strategy and product development. Ian has written for I.D. Magazine and Core77 and has been co-author for several academic journal articles. He holds an MBA from Babson College, a BA from McGill University and also studied in France and Ireland. Ian counts Harvard University, General Motors, Trader Joe’s, Xerox Corporation, Parsons School of Design and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration among his past clients. He also serves as Adjunct Professor at Parsons School of Design.

Ying Wong is the president of JMW Engineering, Inc. He has a master's degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a patent related to displaying data on a GIS map. He specializes in GIS application software development, and traffic simulation and modeling.

Ozgur Yogurtcu is a Managing Partner in BlueNET, leading Enterprise Integration, Custom Software Development and Multi-Channel Services practices. He is the lead architect and project manager of the team that created company’s flagship location intelligence product, Bluemaps. Prior to joining BlueNET Mr. Yogurtcu cofounded VeriPark, leading enterprise software company in Turkey. His interests include location intelligence systems, enterprise architectures, web based enterprise software and software quality.

Geoff has more than 10 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include streamlining the infrastructure management workflow at utilities, telecommunications firms and local government, open source geospatial and Web 2.0 and its impact on infrastructure management, and converged BIM/CAD/GIS solutions. Prior to joining Autodesk, Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions which is credited with pioneering RDBMS-based spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and data versioning.