Major companies and organizations always played an important role in the success of this event, the corridor discussions and contacts made during the conference was highly valued from commercial and technical point of view.

The conference title is changed to MEST 2007 (Middle East Spatial Technology Conference & Exhibition 2007) to reflect the immense development in this field, the conference will stretch beyond the 'conventional GIS' to strengthen and accelerate the association towards incorporating spatial data/information and geospatial technology (Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) into our day to day business activities.

Introduction & Background

The evolution of location based technology and intelligent data have brought together the industry to address many issues related to the ever growing interest in incorporating spatial information into day to day business activities and problem solving. At the core of this are two major trends, the evolution of Service Oriented integration and the integration of the traditionally known CAD and GIS technologies.

Both movements are pointing towards a significant direction in technology stretching beyond GIS and CAD traditions to effectively incorporate them into a homogenous Information Technology direction.

We can realize the value of these movements particularly in the practice of infrastructure engineering development, city and regional development and home security.

We can also realize the need to address pressing issues related to Interoperability, collaboration, Information Security and Project Management. Supporting seamlessly integrated key information generators in the fields of Engineering, Surveying, Mapping and Spatial Planners and Developers as well as all other spatial information stakeholders.

This conference will be the channel through which we can communicate the new technology trends and development and gain from each other's experiences. The following are the recommended topics on which the conference will cover:-

Applications

• The need for business services process modeling to optimize government services.
• Engineering Collaboration and Coordination: Multi Discipline and Multi participation.
• The Emerging Service Oriented Architecture as an infrastructure to e-government and the integration of transparent government services for spatial and infrastructure planning
• Data and Metadata Standards in Engineering and Spatial disciplines.
• Integration of Spatial Business Domains: Infrastructure Planning and Development, Urban & Regional Planning and Development , Environmental Planning & Development, Homeland Security and Others.
• Applications in Utilities Including Telecommunications

Technology

• Trends in Technology standards, ISO, OGC, others
• The role of IT based Spatial Database management Systems
• Data-Metadata Standards and Interoperability
• Approaches to Spatial Data, Topology, and  Features Interoperability
• Multi-level Security Considerations
• SDI "Spatial Data Infrastructure" directions
• CAD-Spatial Technology Interoperability
• Multi Participant Engineering-Spatial Collaboration and Technology
• Project Management
• CAD-Spatial Integration
• Identity Management and Multilevel Security
• Service Oriented Architecture Technology basis
• Service Oriented Architecture Technology basis
• GML Language

Other Topics

• Automation
• Positioning and Measurement
• Legal and Policy Issues
• Engineering Surveys
• Education and Training
• GIS and The Internet
• E-Commerce & E-Governance
• Public Health, Safety & Emergency
• Risk Assessment
• Spatial Information Management
• Spatial Planning & Development
• Urban Planning & Design
• Land Management
• Transportation Planning
• Data Purchasing, Sharing, Privacy and Security
• Open Source Software
• Open Source in Geospatial Science
• Standards CAD and GIS Interoperability
• Geospatial Languages
• Geospatial Data Models
• Geospatial Data Integration
• Spatial Data Mining
• Map Use and Design
• Mobile Maping