Essen / Karlsruhe. 20.10.2022. INTERGEO is positioning itself in Essen as the world's leading platform for geospatial IT. Because digitization needs geoinformation. After three days of EXPO and CONFERENCE, the international event for the geospatial community came to a successful close today.
 
INTERGEO EXPO and CONFERENCE proves itself once again as the world's leading geospatial platform. Digitalization needs geoinformation! This is underlined by the key figures of the leading international event for geodesy, geoinformation and land management, which ended successfully today.
 
With 457 exhibitors from 31 countries and around 14,000 trade visitors from 102 countries, INTERGEO is once again building on its successes before the Corona pandemic. The international lecture program with more than 120 speakers has drawn over 1,000 conference participants to Essen. "The results clearly exceed our expectations. We are very pleased to finally be able to bring many people together again with the live event", explains Prof. Dr. Hansjörg Kutterer, President of the organizer DVW e.V., Association for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management. Exhibitor representatives were also delighted with the number of visitors. INTERGEO EXPO 2022 also took place in a hybrid format. The digital event was used by 1,800 visitors who were unable to travel to Essen.
 
Exhibitors, trade fair and conference participants alike emphasized how much they enjoyed the intensive, personal professional exchange and the positive networking atmosphere. "People seized the opportunity to cultivate their network, make new contacts and experience solutions from the geospatial industry live. This year's INTERGEO is proof: we are on the move into the post-pandemic era," says Kutterer.
 
The industry provides answers
INTERGEO is an elementary and indispensable communication platform at the center of important social issues. Geospatial IT provides the fundamental information for spatial representation and analyses on which future-oriented solutions are based.
 
This year, the organizers placed a special focus on digital twins. Today, digital twins are considered the instruments to unite static and dynamic, real-time information and to fulfil important tasks as a reflection of reality. Cooperation, collaboration, and the sharing of information are crucial for the success of the digitalization of city, country, and space. "Digital Twins provide data and fact-based information for sustainable decisions. This is elementary, especially today in an environment of high complexity," says Kutterer.
 
Other focal points of this year’s INTERGEO included Smart Cities, Building Information Modelling (BIM), sustainability, mobility, and climate change. "Climate change affects every one of us. We must confront it, and we are able to do so. Geodesy, geoinformation and land management bring the tools to deal with the impacts of climate change. Future decisions must be made based on reliable modelling," says Kutterer.
 
EXPO international and with a strong line-up
In three exhibition halls, 457 companies from 31 countries presented their products and solutions. The EXPO once again presented the usual broad portfolio of the growth sector geospatial industry. In addition to terrestrial recording and airborne solutions such as drones, exhibitors also presented automated solutions for recording space. Geoinformation systems and BIM solutions demonstrated their potential in data analysis, monitoring and decision support.
 
International corporations showed their colors just as much as medium-sized businesses and start-ups. "We are very pleased about the three new joint stands from the Chinese province of Zhejiang, South Korea and Ukraine," said Daniel Katzer, Managing Director of the EXPO organizer HINTE Expo & Conference GmbH. The feedback from the exhibiting industry was consistently positive. Exhibitors presented practical applications on two stages. "The stages were always fully occupied. Visitors showed great interest in application-oriented content and best-practice solutions for their everyday work," said Katzer.
 
After two years, the need for networking is huge. Exhibitors and visitors came in large numbers to the INTERGEO CityNight on Tuesday evening. Wednesday evening was dominated by the legendary exhibitor evenings until late into the night.
 
Young talent, promotion, impulses
The DVW is working intensively to raise awareness for the geospatial sector and to demonstrate its potential, especially to young talent. For the first time, Prof. Kutterer awarded the newly created "DVW Future Prize" at INTERGEO. The prize is awarded for groundbreaking ideas of outstanding interdisciplinary and social significance. The "Connected Urban Twins" project with the participating cities of Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich won the premiere. To promote young talent, the DVW presented the "INTERGEO Next Generation Science and Geoinnovation Award". With this award, INTERGEO honors outstanding pitches on young researchers' work. This year's winner Steffen Becker from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology was awarded for his master's thesis on traffic monitoring with drones.
 
With the "Challenge Robotic Laserscanning", the DVW is providing an impulse to the automation of terrestrial surveying. "Autonomous scanning is coming. We want to give companies the opportunity to present their applications to the public," says Christiane Salbach, Managing Director of DVW GmbH. The companies Hexagon, Riegl and Trimble took the opportunity to use their autonomous laser scanning solutions live and present the results. "We see this challenge as a prelude and look forward to further development next year," says Christiane Salbach.
 
Ready for Berlin
A large number of exhibitors have already secured their participation at INTERGEO 2023 in Berlin. "Many exhibitors have already booked for next year. We are looking forward to Berlin. The industry is gaining in importance with digitalization. This is reflected in industry growth, many new start-ups, and an innovative business environment," says Katzer, who is responsible for the EXPO.
 
"Come to Berlin! As the leading platform for the geospatial community, we are giving digitalization with geoinformation in administration, business, and science a platform for live communication," says Kutterer on behalf of DVW.
 
Next year, INTERGEO will take place in Berlin from 10 to 12 October 2023.