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1997 ACSM/ASPRS
Show Review

The 1997 ACSM-ASPRS
Convention & Exhibition

Reviewed by Jerry W. Saveriano

They’re breaking up that old gang of mine.

Introduction

I spent four days at the 1997 ACSM-ASPRS Show held in Seattle, Washington, April 6 - 10, 1997. Billed as the "Geospatial Information Age" Conference, it was actually a combination of three concurrent conferences: the ACSM-ASPRS Annual Convention and Exhibition; the Resource Technology Conference; and the Auto-Carto - 13 Symposium. The conferences were sponsored by the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), the American Society for Photogrammerty and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and the Resource Technology Institute (RTI). This confusing mix of sponsoring organizations and conferences were aimed at attracting professionals in the fields of photogrammerty, remote-sensing, geographical sciences, surveying, mapping, geographic and land information systems to a central venue where attendees could see and learn about the latest advances in geomatic technologies. The confusing mix of conferences and sponsors is at the heart of a problem which may cause the break-up of this unique and important annual show.

As an industry consultant, writer and lecturer I’ve been going to trade shows for over twenty years. I’ve worked the ACSM-ASPRS annual convention for the last four years, principally for client companies which exhibit at the show. I am also a member of the Opto-Precision Instruments Association (OPIA) Surveying Systems Group which is a national trade organization of instrument makers, GPS/GIS companies and software developers that rent about half the floor space in the ACSM-ASPRS exhibit hall. Both the OPIA and I are oriented more to the surveying and mapping industries (ACSM) than to the photogrammetry and remote sensing industries (ASPRS). But many of the OPIA member companies have divisions which market to both sides of the ACSM-ASPRS equation.

The opinions in this review are solely my own unless clearly attributed to others. I feel it’s important that serious discussions are held and equitable solutions found before the industry loses a unique and critical convention. Many of the points I make in this review are known and understood by key players and managers within the sponsors’ and exhibitors’ organizations. But I think the associations’ membership, those who attend the show and those who care about the geomatics industry, should be made aware of the current state of affairs before we lose a valuable resource without public discourse. Unfortunately and maybe understandably many of those making the key decisions regarding the future of the show prefer to make their deals in committee meetings where there is little input from those who will be affected by their decisions.

INTRODUCTION

The ACSM-ASPRS Annual Show is in serious trouble. This will impact the industries and membership which the convention is supposed to serve. The show has been sponsored jointly by these groups since, 1955. It is traditionally held during the Spring in various cities around the US. At its peak, the 1991 Show in Baltimore drew around 5,000 visitors.

Since the early 1990s there has been a significant drop in both the attendance at the shows and membership in the sponsoring organizations. This has been attributed to changes in federal policies in government employee participation in associations. Since 1992 the show has been trending between 2,000 - 4,000 registrations. And even though there has been a modest increase in attendees over the last few years this weakness has caused a rift between the ASPRS and ACSM leadership.

It has also caused discontentment amongst the show’s exhibitors who spend tens of thousands of dollars to display their wares at the show. In addition, exhibitors have complained for years about the ACSM-ASPRS’s committees’ lack of concern and attention to the needs and requests of the exhibitors whose fees significantly underwrite the cost of the show and provide the associations with support and profits.

The bickering and discontentment has been growing over the last few years and reached the breaking point last year at the 1996 show when the ASPRS leadership issued a press release stating that it was terminating its agreement with the ACSM to co-sponsor future annual spring shows, stating that the move "…frees both organizations to explore a number of options regarding their respective annual conventions." Bill French the Executive Director of the ASPRS said. "The real problem for ASPRS is that the percentage of ASPRS members attending the Annual meeting has gone from 20% in 1989 to 6-7% in 1996."

The ACSM and ASPRS also sponsor a smaller fall GIS/LIS Show along with several other associations that currently will be held as planned. This means that this 1997 ACSM-ASPRS Annual Show is likely to be the last major cooperatively sponsored event by these associations. Next year the ACSM will hold its annual show in early March in Baltimore, Maryland and the ASPRS will hold their 1998 Annual Conference in conjunction with the RTI, in late March in Tampa, Florida.

The ASPRS decision has the ACSM, many exhibitors and attendees, and others connected with the convention bewildered and anxious. Many worry that the split-up will be the death knell for an already relatively feeble, but recently recovering, show. And the idea of leaving the current struggle to travel to such an unknown and unsure place, to strike-out anew, seems like a move out of Marshall Applewhite’s school of navigation. My discussions with the leadership of the ACSM, ASPRS, exhibitors, session leaders and attendees did little to provide me with an understanding of the logic of the move or hope that the break-up will benefit any of those concerned.

ASPRS's dubious decision goes beyond the bizarre concept of saving a sinking boat by cutting it in half and steering the bow and the stern to different ports. There is an added irony in the timing of the decision. There is currently a convergence of technologies occurring within the geomatics industries with new products and systems such as GPS/GIS providing important benefits to surveying and photogrammetry professionals alike.

What is really needed at this time is a single annual show that brings together more of the related sciences and technologies under the geomatics umbrella and conferences which encourages discussion, debate, cross pollination and training among the various professionals involved with geospatial information engineering.

The future is more likely to be comprised of professionals with generalized knowledge, utilizing intelligent technologies which provide the specialized know-how to accomplish more work with fewer people. Companies and government agencies are reengineering themselves by eliminating non-value added work and combining functionality in their staff people in order to more efficiently serve their customers and missions. This fragmentation of the convention and the professions by the ASPRS seems to be contrary to this trend and the best interest of their membership and the industry at large.

In front of the curtain -
what the customers’ saw.

Workshops

Workshops were conducted on Saturday and Sunday, April 5-6, costing members $40.00 for advanced registration and $70.00 for on-site registration, $65.00 and $95.00 for non-members.

The workshops seemed to be well attended. The one I went to "Controlling New Technology," lead by Mr. Milton Denny, PLS, had about twenty people in it. The afternoon workshop was four hours long and covered how surveyors should adapt themselves and their practice to using advanced technology. Milton had run a morning session on the "History of Surveying" which demonstrates the breadth of knowledge of this popular lecturer.

The session I attended was very well done. Milton is easy to listen to, knowledgeable and a vast resource of common sense in his approach to advanced geomatic technologies. He enriched his lecture with many war stories and anecdotes to support and highlight his points.

The workshop was very worthwhile and well received by those attending. And other than a small gripe I had about his use of black and white transparencies for his lecture, I learned a lot and enjoyed Mr. Denny’s enlightened professionalism and sage advice. Milton was also one of the very few people who did not think the ACSM-ASPRS break up was a terrible idea and he is a member and director of the ACSM.

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"The Geospatial Information Age -
The Changing Boundaries"

Keynote Addresses by,

Charles R. Trimble - Founder, President and C.E.O. of Trimble Navigation, Ltd.

Steve Smyth - Lead Geographer, Microsoft Corp.

Mr. Trimble is a true industry visionary and leader, but gave a relatively uninspiring presentation. His topic was "GPS Surveying - What the Past can Tell us about the Future." Most of his talk was based on the great improvements in speed, accuracy and weight of GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) gear corresponding with a significant drop in the cost for GPS systems.

These impressive trends were illustrated by the kinds of charts and graphs that excite the hearts (or other organs) of venture capitalists. It is unfortunate that we’ve become somewhat accustomed to these kinds of trends in the high tech industry where Moore’s Law (the observation, made in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that each new memory integrated circuit contained roughly twice as much capacity as its predecessor, and each chip was released within 18-24 months of the previous chip,) relegates even algebraic growth in performance as simply par.

The GPS trends may be pedestrian when compared to the computer industry. However, those levels of performance increase look like giant steps when compared to what is possible with conventional survey instruments. This explains two corresponding trends: 1 - For the first time ever, forecasts of sales of GPS units for 1997 will equal that of Total Stations in the surveying applications; and, 2 - Virtually all of the major makers of surveying instruments now offer GPS solutions.

Mr. Trimble’s presentation covered new business directions, opportunities and how the surveying business will change and what those changes will mean for surveyors.

Steve Symth of Microsoft, who is more of an engineer than a visionary, gave an interesting and sometimes humorous talk about his company’s work in the field of geo-information technologies. He delighted the several hundred people who attended the opening session by gently poking fun at Microsoft and Bill Gates on a couple of occasions. This seemed even more deliciously dangerous because the Seattle Convention Center is only a few miles from the corporate headquarters of world’s most powerful and richest technologist.

It appears that Microsoft has no immediate plans to dominate the world of geomatics. In fact, it was not even clear that surveying, photogrammetry and even GIS are specifically on their radar scope at this time. I guess some market niches are too small to be attractive and appetizing to the true industry behemoths; many of us in the audience felt both disappointed and relieved. What Microsoft is concerned with is creating geo-information standards that will allow Plug & Play, hardware and software geo-information components and modules.

Steve, who is lead geographer of a staff of about 65 at Microsoft (How many geographers are on your staff?) works on understanding and influencing industry standards. They support the Open GIS Consortium and the European Concept Protocol which promotes the use of a Universal Geographical Reference (UGR) system. The UGR system’s focus is mainly on the semantics and structural hierarchies of geo-information.

Of course this was about as exciting as diagramming a sentence, although important if we expect our future systems to work. User friendliness means engineering details and difficulties have been solved under the software’s surface. So after millions of international man-hours have been exhausted by Steve and his fellow engineers, we will be able to find a Burger King in Paris (to get Le Whopper, the French hate this) or an oil spill in Anchorage (unhappy Eskimos here) with a mouse click.

After the well-received opening session I was able to talk briefly with James R. Plasker, President of ACSM and Tina K. Cary, President of ASPRS about the breakup of the annual convention. Mr. Plasker expressed his group’s concern and disappointment with the move and the ACSM’s wish that the decades long cooperative sponsorship would continue.

Ms. Cary was not so worried and viewed the change in the annual Spring show as a chance to try some new approaches to the convention. She also pointed out there were a number of conferences and exhibits on which the ASPRS and ACSM would continue to cooperate, such as the Fall GIS/LIS Show and next year’s International Show to be held in Portland, Oregon.

She also left the door open for potential reconciliation on the annual Spring show if the ASPRS’s solo career didn’t work out. So, maybe it’s more like trying separate vacations before a final disassociation?

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School’s out, intermittently -
teachers play hooky.

Technical Sessions

From what I saw, and what I learned from the people with whom I spoke, the technical sessions this year were particularly weak. The quality was reported to be uneven, with too many poor and spotty sessions. There were also a high number of presentation cancellations. 25% of some of the sessions were cancelled due to speaker no-shows and other reasons.

There has been an ongoing debate between the exhibitors and the sponsoring associations about the level and nature of the technical sessions. The show’s exhibitors requested more hands-on, applications-oriented sessions be integrated into the conference. There seems to be a real disconnect between those who attend for the sessions and those who attend to see the latest technology on the floor.

A good example of this was at a GIS session I attended that had a high number of cancelled presentations. The moderator suggested that the attendees could take advantage of a number of morning speaker no-shows by taking a long lunch.

After the session broke early I reminded the moderator that there was an active and interesting exhibition taking place downstairs and the exhibitors would be happy to see the attendees visit their booths. I was disappointed later to see that there were additional afternoon cancellations. This time however, on the sign outside the meeting room announcing the cancellations the moderator penned a note suggesting that the attendees visit the exhibition floor to see the Poster Session!

I understand that there is a natural push/pull or ying/yang relationship between academicians and vendors, but the best shows are a result of a healthy balance between the exhibitors’ need to demonstrate their hot new gear and the professionals need to associate with their peers and learn about the latest theories and studies in their field.

Too often the associations only pay lip service to the exhibitors and only pay keen attention when they want the vendors to sign-up for expensive booth space, advertise in their journals, or donate money and equipment to the association’s programs. And it is sometimes a bit embarrassing to see these very same haughty academicians and government agency researchers when they do find time to visit the exhibitor booths scoop-up the vendors free pens, T-shirts, coffee cups and other giveaways like naughty children.

As one would expect at such a conference, the papers were wide ranging and eclectic, with a mostly theoretical and academic orientation. The raw statistics on the numbers of meetings, workshops and sessions were:

23 - workshops

120 - business and association meetings

124 - technical sessions

317 - technical papers

 
5 Volumes of proceedings with a total of 2,519 - pages

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Sleepy in Seattle

1997 Exhibition

About 130 exhibitors, roughly split,

50/50 -ACSM/ASPRS orientation.

Attendance:

Exhibitors
        0984

Students &Volunteers
        0236

Regular Attendees
        2,022

Total
        3,241

The total approxiamate attendance at recent
ACSM-ASPRS Shows:

1996 Baltimore
        3,920

1995 Charlotte
        3,000

1994 Reno
        2,800

1993 New Orleans
        2,900

1992 Albuquerque
        2,050

1991 Baltimore
        5,000

The 1991 Baltimore Show was a record for the 40 year Show history.

There were around 2,080 people pre-registered for this show. This was a higher than expected number and the final tally of just over 3,200 total attendance was not bad considering Seattle is so distant from most of the US. Many of the exhibitors had reduced their booth space for this show on the assumption that it would not draw enough customers to justify the expenses.

But, most of the time there was adequate floor traffic and interest in the exhibits and product demonstrations. Also, the weather was good, the Pacific Northwest Area and Seattle itself are very beautiful and the convention hall and meeting rooms were new, easy to get to and overall the Washington State Convention and Trade Center is a very nice place to host a show this size.

The exhibit hall was very nearly full of vendors and there was a good mix of technology on the floor. There was not however as many new product introductions nor announcements of strategic partnerships as there were over the last two years.

Most of the new products introduced were incremental improvements or refinements of existing products. There was a filling-out in the total station lines and interesting developments in the mapping grade GPS systems, but no real block-buster industry shaking news.

The exhibitors hospitality suites were lightly attended and not as grand as usual. Trimble sponsored a pleasant party on the observation deck of the Space Needle, certainly a high point of the Show.

New Products

What follows is a brief review of some of what I saw in the exhibition hall. I’ve focused mainly on what was newly introduced at the show. I’ve included the Web site URL’s of the companies discussed so you can get more information if you are interested in the products mentioned. There were many other good companies with great products at the show which deserve attention. But, the only way to really cover that much ground you’ll have to attend the next show yourself.

Instruments:

Topcon - www.topcon.com, showed a couple of new total stations the DT-110L Laser Theodolite incorporates the state-of-the-art longer life laser diode technology which makes it extremely compact and light weight and can stand up to any wet-weather conditions. The GMT-100L Motorized Total Station was demonstrated. It uses servo motors, MS-DOS operating system and a new Laser Pointer System to help locate the prism. The GMT-100L will be available later this summer. Topcon has also begun to handle Ashtech GPS systems along with the other GPS products they distribute.

Leica - www.leica.com, is filling-out their line of total stations to 12 models by adding several new ones. They’ve also enhanced their onboard software with new applications which can be added as needed by the customer. They demonstrated improvements in their intelligent Remote Controlled Surveying System the RCS1000 which uses CCD video for moving target tracking.

Zeiss - www.czi.com, showed a new family of 2nd Generation Digital Levels and several new total stations.

Geotronics - www.geotronics.se, is celebrating 50 years in business with their top-of-the-line 650 Bergstrand Robotic total station with Autolock” , this model will only be available throughout 1997.

Sokkia - www.sokkia.com, showed their upgraded PowerSet” family of total stations also new line of construction lasers.

GPS/GIS Systems:

Many of the interesting product introductions were in the mapping grade GPS systems, most in the $10,000 range.

Trimble - www.trimble.com/survey, had the new GPS Pathfinder” Pro XR with Asset Surveyor on display. The Pro XR can map with submeter accuracy using integrated real-time differential correction capabilities when integrated with MSK Beacon technology.

Tripod Data Systems - www.tdsway.com, introduced a new GPS/GIS product line called SOLO for affordable, Real Time, Differential GPS mapping applications. This new light weight, compact hardware/software package offers a highly integrated solution for mapping. It provides fast, in the field coordinates, when integrated with the companion Omnistar” satellite correction service. It also allows for easy interface with Laser Range Finders.

TDS was also demonstrating ForeSight, their latest PC Surveying software for Windows NT & 95, free demo programs are available.

Ashtech - www.ashtech.com, was showing-off their slick looking Z-Super Station” . It’s a good looking integrated package that combine the GPS receiver, battery, PC Card memory and radio link. This light weight unit looks more like a piece of modern computer gear, with smooth curves and corners, making it comfortable to carry with its shoulder strap. The industrial design may be too pretty for burley surveyor types, but just right for GIS field technicians who want to pretend it’s a Tricorder and they’re Bones from Star Trek.

Magellan demonstrated their handheld ProMARK X-CM GPS system. For around $ 10,000 you get two handhelds, one acts as a base station and one the rover, and Magellan’s MSTAR Windows software for post processing. The software is not hardlocked or copy protected saving customers some hassles. This new system will be available by the end of April.

Nikon - www.nikonusa.com, had news about its recently announced partnership with NovAtel GPS systems. Nikon will be distributing the NovAtel’s GPS products throughout the U.S. and Latin America. "There is tremendous potential in the vital, fast-growing GPS arena, and we are excited to enter the marketplace with NovAtel as a partner," said Jack Abrams, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Nikon Inc.

Nikon has appointment two new GPS professionals Jeff Teitelbaum and Geoffrey Fulton Cox. They will be responsible for GPS products including the GISMO” and Outrider” . Both men have been members of the GPS community for years. Nikon has expanded its very aggressive purchase program to allow surveyors and other GPS professionals to purchase Nikon and NovAtel equipment with exceptionally low down payments and 0% interest for 30 months.

GIS/CAD Software:

PROGIS - www.progis.com, gave away a free copy of WinGIS™ - their Windows based Geographical Information System, valued at $3,995. They also announced the latest release of WinGIS, version 3.3, which will be available next month.

ESRI - www.esri.com, showed a couple of new interesting products. 1 - A major new product introduction was "ESRI SDE Client" which is called middleware software which serves as a link between a variety of CAD software systems and the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI), Spatial Database Engine” (SDE) software. This new software solution helps to simplify the management and application of GIS and CAD information systems across vendors and platforms. The SDE CAD Client adds functionality to the CAD software to allow storage and retrieval of spatial data via the SDE server. This is a significant new enterprise wide solution for information systems management.

2 - Another new product is ArcView Internet Map Server which is an extension of ArcView GIS Version 3. Web applications can now provide integrated access to a wealth of geoinformation stored in a wide variety data formats. Visit the ESRI Website and go to "Live Maps on the Internet" section to see examples of this new technology.

Softdesk - www.softdesk.com, demonstrated their latest software, Survey which includes command line coordinate geometry, least squares adjustment, geodetic coordinate transformations, Sun and Starshot calculations, traverse and sideshot entry through spreadsheets, and default setup for all variables. Survey handles data from industry-standard data collectors and batch mode input. Softdesk has now completed its merger with Autodesk and their products and distribution will be better unified and integrated.

Photogrammetric & Mapping:

Intergraph - www.intergraph.com, attracted a lot of attention with its next generation softcopy photogrammetric system "ImageStation” Z" which combine Window NT workstations, utilizing symmetric multiprocessors (SMP), with the Zeiss SCAI scanning module. The hardware is integrated and managed with Intergraph software which is designed for end-to-end digital workflow providing, measuration and triangulation; 3-D feature and DTM extraction; and orthophoto generation processing. Topping off this new, fast and powerful, digital photogrammetry system is an awesome 28" panoramic stereo monitor. This beautiful new monitor has HDTV screen proportions (9:16 aspect ratio) which provides plenty of display workspace and stunning images.

VirtuoZo - www.virtuozo.com.au, a newcomer to the US photogrammetric softcopy market comes to us from Austrailia. Their relatively low cost (about $15,000 for a complete software suite) currently runs on 24-bit Silicon Graphics workstations, it is being ported to other platforms, including Windows NT. While costing less than its competition, this system had comparable features and performance. The VituoZo™ system demonstrated fast and accurate auto-correlation and easy to use interactive visualization. The original code was written by Chinese engineers and further development and the "Westernization" of the code is being done by the a joint effort of the original team and Geonautics of Australia. VirtuoZo has been used successfully in applications in Australia, New Zealand and other countries. They are a member of Bentley System’s, Independent Software Developer (ISD) Program. Marketing, distribution and technical support centers are being set up throughout the US and Europe.

ER Mapper - www.ermapper.com, had some of the best attended demonstration sessions (Could it have been the free T-shirts? I got one!) at the show. They showed off the latest Version 5.5 of their popular ER Mapper software for 3-D visualization and image processing. ER Mapper is an affordable, versatile and comprehensive software solution that is easy to learn and use. It is fully bundled package and incorporates a unique "algorithm concept" for processing data which greatly reduces processing steps, time and disk space, thereby increasing system performance.

StorageTek - www.storagetek.com, has the solutions to what to do with all the data created by the other technologies at the show. They make a family of Automated Data Storage products based on data tape cartridges which use helical scan drives similar to those used by VCRs. The tape cartridges are stored in sealed cabinet enclosures that use a robotic pick and place device to service the read/write drives. StorageTek systems automate the archiving, managing, safeguarding and retrieving of data. Their latest system, the TimberWolf 9740 has a base price of around $68,000. It is about the size of a large refrigerator and can be equipped with from 1 - 4 drives which can automatically handle anywhere from 326 to 494 tape carts (about 25 terabytes of data). Their systems are expandable and can be configured to provide connectivity to nearly any host system.

Check for complete details and specifications on each of the new products mentioned at the manufacturers’ listed Web sites.

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OPIA - Surveying Systems Division Meeting

The Surveying Systems Division meeting was held on Tuesday, April 8, 1997. The executive meeting is made up of surveying instrument makers, GPS manufacturers, software companies, trade magazine publishers and others who exhibit at the show.

The group meets usually two or three times a year typically in conjunction with the major industry shows. A good deal of the discussion of the recent meetings has centered around the members’ concerns with the deterioration of the ACSM-ASPRS Shows.

And even though it is normally difficult to find a general agreement within any committee of competitors, there was a consensus of concern about the direction of the Show. This is no doubt true to some extent that one thing even a divided committee can do is unify in its criticism of some other committee!

Each year exhibitors target significant portions of their marketing budgets and time their new product introductions to coincide with the show. The budgets for the Show must be balanced with expenses for traditional advertising, other industry shows, dealer and state shows and other marketing activities. Like all business expenses the expenditures have to be justified based upon their return on investment.

The committee members’ concerns prompted them to ask Tagg Henderson publisher of POB Magazine to do a market study of surveying and mapping professionals regarding their opinions of the Show. And while the complete findings are confidential and copyright of Business News Publishing,

I can summarize the results by saying that many of those polled are not even familiar with the show and most of those polled have never been and never plan to attend the Show. Most surveyors report that they attend their local state shows and don’t believe the expense and time lost to travel to the national shows are worth the cost (their ROI concerns). There were also negative comments about the content and level of the technical sessions.

The study reinforced the exhibitors’ fears about their customers’ view of the Show and how well the ACSM-ASPRS is serving its membership. The overall consensus of those attending the meeting was that significant efforts and changes need to be made to save the Show from continued decay.

The OPIA members also expressed their willingness to cooperate and support the ACSM in their efforts to make next year’s solo show work. After extensive discussion an outline of general recommendations was agreed upon. Those recommendations will be made directly to the leadership of ACSM but my understanding of what’s needed is as follows:

      Better cooperation and coordination
      with state shows

      Eliminate Fall show and focus on
      annual Spring show

      Smarter scheduling (late Feb. or early
      March) and show locations

      Better CEU technical sessions with
      hands-on applications oriented
      sessions

      Most important is better marketing and
      promotion programs that are customer
      and attendee focused.

These are easily recognized improvements which most companies in a declining market position would readily accept. Unfortunately professional organizations and societies are too often not motivated and driven by objectives which make good business sense.

Those I talked to within the ACSM and ASPRS organizations said they had made a real and genuine effort in properly marketing and promoting the Show. And furthermore, they said they were willing to try new and innovative ideas, I’m afraid their attitudes conveyed a very different message.

One of the attendees I talked with during the show was Curtis A. Clabaugh, P.E. of the Wyoming, Department of Transportation. I have run into Curtis at a number of DOT and Survey Industry Shows over the last few years. He pointed out that splitting up the ACSM-ASPRS Show was going to be a problem for his and other state and federal agencies which have been undergoing downsizing and budget cuts.

These agencies have fewer people to send to fewer shows. Many of their people have benefited from the joint show because and they are increasingly required to be cross-qualified in both the surveying and photogrammetric fields. The fragmentation into separate shows will cause a further stretching of already diminished resources.

At a recent regional DOT meeting Curtis said that an informal straw poll taken of about 14 state DOTs indicated that about 2/3rds would opt to send their people to the 1998 ASPRS show in Tampa next year.

When I asked Curtis about the alternative of his going to state shows instead of a national show he said that he would miss the direct contact with the technical people the manufacturers send to the national shows. Most of the regional and state shows are supported by dealers and he would not get the face-to-face meetings with factory people he benefits from at the national annual shows.

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Conclusion

But the die is cast and we must wait to see what comes of the annual convention. Whether the fratricidal fractionalization approach to the show by its current leadership continues or if they can turn it around and reunite, only time will tell. What is needed to save this important show is a cooperative effort between the ACSM-ASPRS management and members, and the show’s exhibitors. They can begin by following the recommendations being made by the OPIA and mount and aggressive marketing program to learn what the industry and practitioners need and want from the show, and then build a show that supplies it.

So, it will be on to Baltimore once more, for the ACSM in 1998, to see if there will be a gentle rapping at its chamber door and the show to return, Nevermore.

Envy, Entropy, Murphy and Apathy are powerful, relentless foes and only a concerted, energetic, and enlightened approach by the show’s leadership can overcome its downhill slide into possible oblivion.

This important show is at a turning point. Can it be saved and provide a venue and locus for the burgeoning geomatics industry or is it destined to become a fading dead star, diminished, cold, in the vacuum of forgotten space?

And, who will then be pleased by its loss, except the Raven? Or, perhaps the black bird is a falcon from Malta, not a dark prophet of doom at all, only painted to hide its gold and jewels, and once cleaned and restored it can become "…the stuff that dreams are made of."

Jerry W. Saveriano is President of Saveriano & Associates, a consulting firm which specializes in the application and marketing of advanced automation technologies in the geomatics and robotics industries. He has consulted, lectured and published internationally on the future of automation.

I have reviewed this article with the management of the ACSM, ASPRS the OPIA and industry leaders. There has been a strong response from several people and I will be publishing those responses over the next few weeks.

If you would like to comment on this article or add your voice to those concerned about the future of this important show, send me an email with your comments, Show@sandacom.com

INTRODUCTION

See Conventional Wisdom follow-up article to read some comments in response to this article.

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1997 ACSM/ASPRS
Show Review

The 1997 ACSM-ASPRS
Convention & Exhibition

Reviewed by Jerry W. Saveriano

They’re breaking up that old gang of mine.

Introduction

I spent four days at the 1997 ACSM-ASPRS Show held in Seattle, Washington, April 6 - 10, 1997. Billed as the "Geospatial Information Age" Conference, it was actually a combination of three concurrent conferences: the ACSM-ASPRS Annual Convention and Exhibition; the Resource Technology Conference; and the Auto-Carto - 13 Symposium. The conferences were sponsored by the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), the American Society for Photogrammerty and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and the Resource Technology Institute (RTI). This confusing mix of sponsoring organizations and conferences were aimed at attracting professionals in the fields of photogrammerty, remote-sensing, geographical sciences, surveying, mapping, geographic and land information systems to a central venue where attendees could see and learn about the latest advances in geomatic technologies. The confusing mix of conferences and sponsors is at the heart of a problem which may cause the break-up of this unique and important annual show.

As an industry consultant, writer and lecturer I’ve been going to trade shows for over twenty years. I’ve worked the ACSM-ASPRS annual convention for the last four years, principally for client companies which exhibit at the show. I am also a member of the Opto-Precision Instruments Association (OPIA) Surveying Systems Group which is a national trade organization of instrument makers, GPS/GIS companies and software developers that rent about half the floor space in the ACSM-ASPRS exhibit hall. Both the OPIA and I are oriented more to the surveying and mapping industries (ACSM) than to the photogrammetry and remote sensing industries (ASPRS). But many of the OPIA member companies have divisions which market to both sides of the ACSM-ASPRS equation.

The opinions in this review are solely my own unless clearly attributed to others. I feel it’s important that serious discussions are held and equitable solutions found before the industry loses a unique and critical convention. Many of the points I make in this review are known and understood by key players and managers within the sponsors’ and exhibitors’ organizations. But I think the associations’ membership, those who attend the show and those who care about the geomatics industry, should be made aware of the current state of affairs before we lose a valuable resource without public discourse. Unfortunately and maybe understandably many of those making the key decisions regarding the future of the show prefer to make their deals in committee meetings where there is little input from those who will be affected by their decisions.

INTRODUCTION

The ACSM-ASPRS Annual Show is in serious trouble. This will impact the industries and membership which the convention is supposed to serve. The show has been sponsored jointly by these groups since, 1955. It is traditionally held during the Spring in various cities around the US. At its peak, the 1991 Show in Baltimore drew around 5,000 visitors.

Since the early 1990s there has been a significant drop in both the attendance at the shows and membership in the sponsoring organizations. This has been attributed to changes in federal policies in government employee participation in associations. Since 1992 the show has been trending between 2,000 - 4,000 registrations. And even though there has been a modest increase in attendees over the last few years this weakness has caused a rift between the ASPRS and ACSM leadership.

It has also caused discontentment amongst the show’s exhibitors who spend tens of thousands of dollars to display their wares at the show. In addition, exhibitors have complained for years about the ACSM-ASPRS’s committees’ lack of concern and attention to the needs and requests of the exhibitors whose fees significantly underwrite the cost of the show and provide the associations with support and profits.

The bickering and discontentment has been growing over the last few years and reached the breaking point last year at the 1996 show when the ASPRS leadership issued a press release stating that it was terminating its agreement with the ACSM to co-sponsor future annual spring shows, stating that the move "…frees both organizations to explore a number of options regarding their respective annual conventions." Bill French the Executive Director of the ASPRS said. "The real problem for ASPRS is that the percentage of ASPRS members attending the Annual meeting has gone from 20% in 1989 to 6-7% in 1996."

The ACSM and ASPRS also sponsor a smaller fall GIS/LIS Show along with several other associations that currently will be held as planned. This means that this 1997 ACSM-ASPRS Annual Show is likely to be the last major cooperatively sponsored event by these associations. Next year the ACSM will hold its annual show in early March in Baltimore, Maryland and the ASPRS will hold their 1998 Annual Conference in conjunction with the RTI, in late March in Tampa, Florida.

The ASPRS decision has the ACSM, many exhibitors and attendees, and others connected with the convention bewildered and anxious. Many worry that the split-up will be the death knell for an already relatively feeble, but recently recovering, show. And the idea of leaving the current struggle to travel to such an unknown and unsure place, to strike-out anew, seems like a move out of Marshall Applewhite’s school of navigation. My discussions with the leadership of the ACSM, ASPRS, exhibitors, session leaders and attendees did little to provide me with an understanding of the logic of the move or hope that the break-up will benefit any of those concerned.

ASPRS's dubious decision goes beyond the bizarre concept of saving a sinking boat by cutting it in half and steering the bow and the stern to different ports. There is an added irony in the timing of the decision. There is currently a convergence of technologies occurring within the geomatics industries with new products and systems such as GPS/GIS providing important benefits to surveying and photogrammetry professionals alike.

What is really needed at this time is a single annual show that brings together more of the related sciences and technologies under the geomatics umbrella and conferences which encourages discussion, debate, cross pollination and training among the various professionals involved with geospatial information engineering.

The future is more likely to be comprised of professionals with generalized knowledge, utilizing intelligent technologies which provide the specialized know-how to accomplish more work with fewer people. Companies and government agencies are reengineering themselves by eliminating non-value added work and combining functionality in their staff people in order to more efficiently serve their customers and missions. This fragmentation of the convention and the professions by the ASPRS seems to be contrary to this trend and the best interest of their membership and the industry at large.

In front of the curtain -
what the customers’ saw.

Workshops

Workshops were conducted on Saturday and Sunday, April 5-6, costing members $40.00 for advanced registration and $70.00 for on-site registration, $65.00 and $95.00 for non-members.

The workshops seemed to be well attended. The one I went to "Controlling New Technology," lead by Mr. Milton Denny, PLS, had about twenty people in it. The afternoon workshop was four hours long and covered how surveyors should adapt themselves and their practice to using advanced technology. Milton had run a morning session on the "History of Surveying" which demonstrates the breadth of knowledge of this popular lecturer.

The session I attended was very well done. Milton is easy to listen to, knowledgeable and a vast resource of common sense in his approach to advanced geomatic technologies. He enriched his lecture with many war stories and anecdotes to support and highlight his points.

The workshop was very worthwhile and well received by those attending. And other than a small gripe I had about his use of black and white transparencies for his lecture, I learned a lot and enjoyed Mr. Denny’s enlightened professionalism and sage advice. Milton was also one of the very few people who did not think the ACSM-ASPRS break up was a terrible idea and he is a member and director of the ACSM.

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"The Geospatial Information Age -
The Changing Boundaries"

Keynote Addresses by,

Charles R. Trimble - Founder, President and C.E.O. of Trimble Navigation, Ltd.

Steve Smyth - Lead Geographer, Microsoft Corp.

Mr. Trimble is a true industry visionary and leader, but gave a relatively uninspiring presentation. His topic was "GPS Surveying - What the Past can Tell us about the Future." Most of his talk was based on the great improvements in speed, accuracy and weight of GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) gear corresponding with a significant drop in the cost for GPS systems.

These impressive trends were illustrated by the kinds of charts and graphs that excite the hearts (or other organs) of venture capitalists. It is unfortunate that we’ve become somewhat accustomed to these kinds of trends in the high tech industry where Moore’s Law (the observation, made in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that each new memory integrated circuit contained roughly twice as much capacity as its predecessor, and each chip was released within 18-24 months of the previous chip,) relegates even algebraic growth in performance as simply par.

The GPS trends may be pedestrian when compared to the computer industry. However, those levels of performance increase look like giant steps when compared to what is possible with conventional survey instruments. This explains two corresponding trends: 1 - For the first time ever, forecasts of sales of GPS units for 1997 will equal that of Total Stations in the surveying applications; and, 2 - Virtually all of the major makers of surveying instruments now offer GPS solutions.

Mr. Trimble’s presentation covered new business directions, opportunities and how the surveying business will change and what those changes will mean for surveyors.

Steve Symth of Microsoft, who is more of an engineer than a visionary, gave an interesting and sometimes humorous talk about his company’s work in the field of geo-information technologies. He delighted the several hundred people who attended the opening session by gently poking fun at Microsoft and Bill Gates on a couple of occasions. This seemed even more deliciously dangerous because the Seattle Convention Center is only a few miles from the corporate headquarters of world’s most powerful and richest technologist.

It appears that Microsoft has no immediate plans to dominate the world of geomatics. In fact, it was not even clear that surveying, photogrammetry and even GIS are specifically on their radar scope at this time. I guess some market niches are too small to be attractive and appetizing to the true industry behemoths; many of us in the audience felt both disappointed and relieved. What Microsoft is concerned with is creating geo-information standards that will allow Plug & Play, hardware and software geo-information components and modules.

Steve, who is lead geographer of a staff of about 65 at Microsoft (How many geographers are on your staff?) works on understanding and influencing industry standards. They support the Open GIS Consortium and the European Concept Protocol which promotes the use of a Universal Geographical Reference (UGR) system. The UGR system’s focus is mainly on the semantics and structural hierarchies of geo-information.

Of course this was about as exciting as diagramming a sentence, although important if we expect our future systems to work. User friendliness means engineering details and difficulties have been solved under the software’s surface. So after millions of international man-hours have been exhausted by Steve and his fellow engineers, we will be able to find a Burger King in Paris (to get Le Whopper, the French hate this) or an oil spill in Anchorage (unhappy Eskimos here) with a mouse click.

After the well-received opening session I was able to talk briefly with James R. Plasker, President of ACSM and Tina K. Cary, President of ASPRS about the breakup of the annual convention. Mr. Plasker expressed his group’s concern and disappointment with the move and the ACSM’s wish that the decades long cooperative sponsorship would continue.

Ms. Cary was not so worried and viewed the change in the annual Spring show as a chance to try some new approaches to the convention. She also pointed out there were a number of conferences and exhibits on which the ASPRS and ACSM would continue to cooperate, such as the Fall GIS/LIS Show and next year’s International Show to be held in Portland, Oregon.

She also left the door open for potential reconciliation on the annual Spring show if the ASPRS’s solo career didn’t work out. So, maybe it’s more like trying separate vacations before a final disassociation?

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School’s out, intermittently -
teachers play hooky.

Technical Sessions

From what I saw, and what I learned from the people with whom I spoke, the technical sessions this year were particularly weak. The quality was reported to be uneven, with too many poor and spotty sessions. There were also a high number of presentation cancellations. 25% of some of the sessions were cancelled due to speaker no-shows and other reasons.

There has been an ongoing debate between the exhibitors and the sponsoring associations about the level and nature of the technical sessions. The show’s exhibitors requested more hands-on, applications-oriented sessions be integrated into the conference. There seems to be a real disconnect between those who attend for the sessions and those who attend to see the latest technology on the floor.

A good example of this was at a GIS session I attended that had a high number of cancelled presentations. The moderator suggested that the attendees could take advantage of a number of morning speaker no-shows by taking a long lunch.

After the session broke early I reminded the moderator that there was an active and interesting exhibition taking place downstairs and the exhibitors would be happy to see the attendees visit their booths. I was disappointed later to see that there were additional afternoon cancellations. This time however, on the sign outside the meeting room announcing the cancellations the moderator penned a note suggesting that the attendees visit the exhibition floor to see the Poster Session!

I understand that there is a natural push/pull or ying/yang relationship between academicians and vendors, but the best shows are a result of a healthy balance between the exhibitors’ need to demonstrate their hot new gear and the professionals need to associate with their peers and learn about the latest theories and studies in their field.

Too often the associations only pay lip service to the exhibitors and only pay keen attention when they want the vendors to sign-up for expensive booth space, advertise in their journals, or donate money and equipment to the association’s programs. And it is sometimes a bit embarrassing to see these very same haughty academicians and government agency researchers when they do find time to visit the exhibitor booths scoop-up the vendors free pens, T-shirts, coffee cups and other giveaways like naughty children.

As one would expect at such a conference, the papers were wide ranging and eclectic, with a mostly theoretical and academic orientation. The raw statistics on the numbers of meetings, workshops and sessions were:

23 - workshops

120 - business and association meetings

124 - technical sessions

317 - technical papers

 
5 Volumes of proceedings with a total of 2,519 - pages

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Sleepy in Seattle

1997 Exhibition

About 130 exhibitors, roughly split,

50/50 -ACSM/ASPRS orientation.

Attendance:

Exhibitors
        0984

Students &Volunteers
        0236

Regular Attendees
        2,022

Total
        3,241

The total approxiamate attendance at recent
ACSM-ASPRS Shows:

1996 Baltimore
        3,920

1995 Charlotte
        3,000

1994 Reno
        2,800

1993 New Orleans
        2,900

1992 Albuquerque
        2,050

1991 Baltimore
        5,000

The 1991 Baltimore Show was a record for the 40 year Show history.

There were around 2,080 people pre-registered for this show. This was a higher than expected number and the final tally of just over 3,200 total attendance was not bad considering Seattle is so distant from most of the US. Many of the exhibitors had reduced their booth space for this show on the assumption that it would not draw enough customers to justify the expenses.

But, most of the time there was adequate floor traffic and interest in the exhibits and product demonstrations. Also, the weather was good, the Pacific Northwest Area and Seattle itself are very beautiful and the convention hall and meeting rooms were new, easy to get to and overall the Washington State Convention and Trade Center is a very nice place to host a show this size.

The exhibit hall was very nearly full of vendors and there was a good mix of technology on the floor. There was not however as many new product introductions nor announcements of strategic partnerships as there were over the last two years.

Most of the new products introduced were incremental improvements or refinements of existing products. There was a filling-out in the total station lines and interesting developments in the mapping grade GPS systems, but no real block-buster industry shaking news.

The exhibitors hospitality suites were lightly attended and not as grand as usual. Trimble sponsored a pleasant party on the observation deck of the Space Needle, certainly a high point of the Show.

New Products

What follows is a brief review of some of what I saw in the exhibition hall. I’ve focused mainly on what was newly introduced at the show. I’ve included the Web site URL’s of the companies discussed so you can get more information if you are interested in the products mentioned. There were many other good companies with great products at the show which deserve attention. But, the only way to really cover that much ground you’ll have to attend the next show yourself.

Instruments:

Topcon - www.topcon.com, showed a couple of new total stations the DT-110L Laser Theodolite incorporates the state-of-the-art longer life laser diode technology which makes it extremely compact and light weight and can stand up to any wet-weather conditions. The GMT-100L Motorized Total Station was demonstrated. It uses servo motors, MS-DOS operating system and a new Laser Pointer System to help locate the prism. The GMT-100L will be available later this summer. Topcon has also begun to handle Ashtech GPS systems along with the other GPS products they distribute.

Leica - www.leica.com, is filling-out their line of total stations to 12 models by adding several new ones. They’ve also enhanced their onboard software with new applications which can be added as needed by the customer. They demonstrated improvements in their intelligent Remote Controlled Surveying System the RCS1000 which uses CCD video for moving target tracking.

Zeiss - www.czi.com, showed a new family of 2nd Generation Digital Levels and several new total stations.

Geotronics - www.geotronics.se, is celebrating 50 years in business with their top-of-the-line 650 Bergstrand Robotic total station with Autolock” , this model will only be available throughout 1997.

Sokkia - www.sokkia.com, showed their upgraded PowerSet” family of total stations also new line of construction lasers.

GPS/GIS Systems:

Many of the interesting product introductions were in the mapping grade GPS systems, most in the $10,000 range.

Trimble - www.trimble.com/survey, had the new GPS Pathfinder” Pro XR with Asset Surveyor on display. The Pro XR can map with submeter accuracy using integrated real-time differential correction capabilities when integrated with MSK Beacon technology.

Tripod Data Systems - www.tdsway.com, introduced a new GPS/GIS product line called SOLO for affordable, Real Time, Differential GPS mapping applications. This new light weight, compact hardware/software package offers a highly integrated solution for mapping. It provides fast, in the field coordinates, when integrated with the companion Omnistar” satellite correction service. It also allows for easy interface with Laser Range Finders.

TDS was also demonstrating ForeSight, their latest PC Surveying software for Windows NT & 95, free demo programs are available.

Ashtech - www.ashtech.com, was showing-off their slick looking Z-Super Station” . It’s a good looking integrated package that combine the GPS receiver, battery, PC Card memory and radio link. This light weight unit looks more like a piece of modern computer gear, with smooth curves and corners, making it comfortable to carry with its shoulder strap. The industrial design may be too pretty for burley surveyor types, but just right for GIS field technicians who want to pretend it’s a Tricorder and they’re Bones from Star Trek.

Magellan demonstrated their handheld ProMARK X-CM GPS system. For around $ 10,000 you get two handhelds, one acts as a base station and one the rover, and Magellan’s MSTAR Windows software for post processing. The software is not hardlocked or copy protected saving customers some hassles. This new system will be available by the end of April.

Nikon - www.nikonusa.com, had news about its recently announced partnership with NovAtel GPS systems. Nikon will be distributing the NovAtel’s GPS products throughout the U.S. and Latin America. "There is tremendous potential in the vital, fast-growing GPS arena, and we are excited to enter the marketplace with NovAtel as a partner," said Jack Abrams, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Nikon Inc.

Nikon has appointment two new GPS professionals Jeff Teitelbaum and Geoffrey Fulton Cox. They will be responsible for GPS products including the GISMO” and Outrider” . Both men have been members of the GPS community for years. Nikon has expanded its very aggressive purchase program to allow surveyors and other GPS professionals to purchase Nikon and NovAtel equipment with exceptionally low down payments and 0% interest for 30 months.

GIS/CAD Software:

PROGIS - www.progis.com, gave away a free copy of WinGIS™ - their Windows based Geographical Information System, valued at $3,995. They also announced the latest release of WinGIS, version 3.3, which will be available next month.

ESRI - www.esri.com, showed a couple of new interesting products. 1 - A major new product introduction was "ESRI SDE Client" which is called middleware software which serves as a link between a variety of CAD software systems and the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI), Spatial Database Engine” (SDE) software. This new software solution helps to simplify the management and application of GIS and CAD information systems across vendors and platforms. The SDE CAD Client adds functionality to the CAD software to allow storage and retrieval of spatial data via the SDE server. This is a significant new enterprise wide solution for information systems management.

2 - Another new product is ArcView Internet Map Server which is an extension of ArcView GIS Version 3. Web applications can now provide integrated access to a wealth of geoinformation stored in a wide variety data formats. Visit the ESRI Website and go to "Live Maps on the Internet" section to see examples of this new technology.

Softdesk - www.softdesk.com, demonstrated their latest software, Survey which includes command line coordinate geometry, least squares adjustment, geodetic coordinate transformations, Sun and Starshot calculations, traverse and sideshot entry through spreadsheets, and default setup for all variables. Survey handles data from industry-standard data collectors and batch mode input. Softdesk has now completed its merger with Autodesk and their products and distribution will be better unified and integrated.

Photogrammetric & Mapping:

Intergraph - www.intergraph.com, attracted a lot of attention with its next generation softcopy photogrammetric system "ImageStation” Z" which combine Window NT workstations, utilizing symmetric multiprocessors (SMP), with the Zeiss SCAI scanning module. The hardware is integrated and managed with Intergraph software which is designed for end-to-end digital workflow providing, measuration and triangulation; 3-D feature and DTM extraction; and orthophoto generation processing. Topping off this new, fast and powerful, digital photogrammetry system is an awesome 28" panoramic stereo monitor. This beautiful new monitor has HDTV screen proportions (9:16 aspect ratio) which provides plenty of display workspace and stunning images.

VirtuoZo - www.virtuozo.com.au, a newcomer to the US photogrammetric softcopy market comes to us from Austrailia. Their relatively low cost (about $15,000 for a complete software suite) currently runs on 24-bit Silicon Graphics workstations, it is being ported to other platforms, including Windows NT. While costing less than its competition, this system had comparable features and performance. The VituoZo™ system demonstrated fast and accurate auto-correlation and easy to use interactive visualization. The original code was written by Chinese engineers and further development and the "Westernization" of the code is being done by the a joint effort of the original team and Geonautics of Australia. VirtuoZo has been used successfully in applications in Australia, New Zealand and other countries. They are a member of Bentley System’s, Independent Software Developer (ISD) Program. Marketing, distribution and technical support centers are being set up throughout the US and Europe.

ER Mapper - www.ermapper.com, had some of the best attended demonstration sessions (Could it have been the free T-shirts? I got one!) at the show. They showed off the latest Version 5.5 of their popular ER Mapper software for 3-D visualization and image processing. ER Mapper is an affordable, versatile and comprehensive software solution that is easy to learn and use. It is fully bundled package and incorporates a unique "algorithm concept" for processing data which greatly reduces processing steps, time and disk space, thereby increasing system performance.

StorageTek - www.storagetek.com, has the solutions to what to do with all the data created by the other technologies at the show. They make a family of Automated Data Storage products based on data tape cartridges which use helical scan drives similar to those used by VCRs. The tape cartridges are stored in sealed cabinet enclosures that use a robotic pick and place device to service the read/write drives. StorageTek systems automate the archiving, managing, safeguarding and retrieving of data. Their latest system, the TimberWolf 9740 has a base price of around $68,000. It is about the size of a large refrigerator and can be equipped with from 1 - 4 drives which can automatically handle anywhere from 326 to 494 tape carts (about 25 terabytes of data). Their systems are expandable and can be configured to provide connectivity to nearly any host system.

Check for complete details and specifications on each of the new products mentioned at the manufacturers’ listed Web sites.

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OPIA - Surveying Systems Division Meeting

The Surveying Systems Division meeting was held on Tuesday, April 8, 1997. The executive meeting is made up of surveying instrument makers, GPS manufacturers, software companies, trade magazine publishers and others who exhibit at the show.

The group meets usually two or three times a year typically in conjunction with the major industry shows. A good deal of the discussion of the recent meetings has centered around the members’ concerns with the deterioration of the ACSM-ASPRS Shows.

And even though it is normally difficult to find a general agreement within any committee of competitors, there was a consensus of concern about the direction of the Show. This is no doubt true to some extent that one thing even a divided committee can do is unify in its criticism of some other committee!

Each year exhibitors target significant portions of their marketing budgets and time their new product introductions to coincide with the show. The budgets for the Show must be balanced with expenses for traditional advertising, other industry shows, dealer and state shows and other marketing activities. Like all business expenses the expenditures have to be justified based upon their return on investment.

The committee members’ concerns prompted them to ask Tagg Henderson publisher of POB Magazine to do a market study of surveying and mapping professionals regarding their opinions of the Show. And while the complete findings are confidential and copyright of Business News Publishing,

I can summarize the results by saying that many of those polled are not even familiar with the show and most of those polled have never been and never plan to attend the Show. Most surveyors report that they attend their local state shows and don’t believe the expense and time lost to travel to the national shows are worth the cost (their ROI concerns). There were also negative comments about the content and level of the technical sessions.

The study reinforced the exhibitors’ fears about their customers’ view of the Show and how well the ACSM-ASPRS is serving its membership. The overall consensus of those attending the meeting was that significant efforts and changes need to be made to save the Show from continued decay.

The OPIA members also expressed their willingness to cooperate and support the ACSM in their efforts to make next year’s solo show work. After extensive discussion an outline of general recommendations was agreed upon. Those recommendations will be made directly to the leadership of ACSM but my understanding of what’s needed is as follows:

      Better cooperation and coordination
      with state shows

      Eliminate Fall show and focus on
      annual Spring show

      Smarter scheduling (late Feb. or early
      March) and show locations

      Better CEU technical sessions with
      hands-on applications oriented
      sessions

      Most important is better marketing and
      promotion programs that are customer
      and attendee focused.

These are easily recognized improvements which most companies in a declining market position would readily accept. Unfortunately professional organizations and societies are too often not motivated and driven by objectives which make good business sense.

Those I talked to within the ACSM and ASPRS organizations said they had made a real and genuine effort in properly marketing and promoting the Show. And furthermore, they said they were willing to try new and innovative ideas, I’m afraid their attitudes conveyed a very different message.

One of the attendees I talked with during the show was Curtis A. Clabaugh, P.E. of the Wyoming, Department of Transportation. I have run into Curtis at a number of DOT and Survey Industry Shows over the last few years. He pointed out that splitting up the ACSM-ASPRS Show was going to be a problem for his and other state and federal agencies which have been undergoing downsizing and budget cuts.

These agencies have fewer people to send to fewer shows. Many of their people have benefited from the joint show because and they are increasingly required to be cross-qualified in both the surveying and photogrammetric fields. The fragmentation into separate shows will cause a further stretching of already diminished resources.

At a recent regional DOT meeting Curtis said that an informal straw poll taken of about 14 state DOTs indicated that about 2/3rds would opt to send their people to the 1998 ASPRS show in Tampa next year.

When I asked Curtis about the alternative of his going to state shows instead of a national show he said that he would miss the direct contact with the technical people the manufacturers send to the national shows. Most of the regional and state shows are supported by dealers and he would not get the face-to-face meetings with factory people he benefits from at the national annual shows.

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Conclusion

But the die is cast and we must wait to see what comes of the annual convention. Whether the fratricidal fractionalization approach to the show by its current leadership continues or if they can turn it around and reunite, only time will tell. What is needed to save this important show is a cooperative effort between the ACSM-ASPRS management and members, and the show’s exhibitors. They can begin by following the recommendations being made by the OPIA and mount and aggressive marketing program to learn what the industry and practitioners need and want from the show, and then build a show that supplies it.

So, it will be on to Baltimore once more, for the ACSM in 1998, to see if there will be a gentle rapping at its chamber door and the show to return, Nevermore.

Envy, Entropy, Murphy and Apathy are powerful, relentless foes and only a concerted, energetic, and enlightened approach by the show’s leadership can overcome its downhill slide into possible oblivion.

This important show is at a turning point. Can it be saved and provide a venue and locus for the burgeoning geomatics industry or is it destined to become a fading dead star, diminished, cold, in the vacuum of forgotten space?

And, who will then be pleased by its loss, except the Raven? Or, perhaps the black bird is a falcon from Malta, not a dark prophet of doom at all, only painted to hide its gold and jewels, and once cleaned and restored it can become "…the stuff that dreams are made of."

Jerry W. Saveriano is President of Saveriano & Associates, a consulting firm which specializes in the application and marketing of advanced automation technologies in the geomatics and robotics industries. He has consulted, lectured and published internationally on the future of automation.

I have reviewed this article with the management of the ACSM, ASPRS the OPIA and industry leaders. There has been a strong response from several people and I will be publishing those responses over the next few weeks.

If you would like to comment on this article or add your voice to those concerned about the future of this important show, send me an email with your comments, Show@sandacom.com

INTRODUCTION

See Conventional Wisdom follow-up article to read some comments in response to this article.