As you know, KMI Media Group and the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation partnered to create the official publication of the foundation with the re-launch of Geospatial Intelligence Forum.

This “new” magazine officially launched the first week of June, and we are thrilled with all of the positive feedback we’ve received. We recently held our first editorial advisory meeting to discuss upcoming issues to ensure the publication retains all of the enriching articles subscribers have come to expect, as well as expands to cover all aspects relevant to you and the entirety of our GEOINT community.

While all of the meetings and behind-thescenes work for this magazine launch were taking place, USGIF and its dedicated volunteers, sponsors and members also were meeting to pull off what was arguably USGIF’s busiest week ever.

During the first week of June, the foundation held the first-ever USGIF Invitational, which had 158 golfers on two courses and raised almost $30,000 for our scholarship fund. We also put on the 2009 Army Geospatial and Imagery Conference (AGIC) with over 400 attendees.

In the latest version of GEOINT Tech Days, we partnered with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to sponsor a classified day and unclassified day of exhibits and a fantastic joint networking reception with attendees from across the community. Almost 1,000 people came through the exhibit hall, including large numbers from the Friends of ISR, AGIC and USGIF.

On Friday of that week, we kicked off our new USGIF Workshop Series with a sold-out session on the applications of commercial SAR. We ended the whirlwind week with the 5th Annual GEOGala, which was our finest celebration ever with the GEOINT community.

Of course, all of this took place while we began the final preparations for our return to San Antonio, Texas, on October 18–21, 2009, for the sixth annual GEOINT Symposium.

As this issue goes to print, we are right in the middle of planning for the symposium. Registration and hotel reservations for GEOINT 2009 opens July 15. Panels and breakout sessions are starting to take shape, and our keynotes are confirming on a quickening pace.

GEOINT, as many of you may know, is the preeminent event of the year for our community. Spanning multiple topics relevant to the defense, intelligence and homeland security communities, GEOINT provides relevant and timely information for commanders, policy leaders, industry decision-makers, professors and students in academia, service men and women, and international partners and allies.

Confirmed speakers for GEOINT 2009 include the Honorable Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence; the Honorable James Clapper, under secretary of defense for intelligence; Lieutenant General David Deptula, Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; and Major General John Custer, commanding general of the Army Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

We are also working diligently to change the traditional panel discussions and replace them with some “un-panels,” as we are affectionately referring to them. These “un-panels” will feature two or three high-level speakers in a more relaxed setting, allowing them to play off one another and spend most of their time on stage interacting with our audience. We are very excited about this evolution in the GEOINT Symposium agenda, driven by attendee feedback, and we believe the audience and our speakers will benefit from it.

Continuing the success of last year’s breakout sessions, GEOINT will once again provide afternoon presentations and discussions off the main stage to allow not only the senior staff, but also mid- and junior-level personnel, to become directly engaged. The afternoon breakouts will cover six specific topic areas.

These topic areas will provide for in-depth discussions on issues critically important to the people who attend those sessions. The six afternoon breakouts currently planned are Persistent Surveillance; GEOINT for the International Community and ISAF; GEOINT in Open Source Intelligence; Location-based Services; AGI and MASINT; and GEOINT support to Modeling, Simulation and Training.

In addition to our fantastic lineup of speakers and afternoon sessions, if you have been to GEOINT, you know the exhibit hall is one of the key places to see the most recent technologies, solutions and products available to the GEOINT community. If you haven’t been to GEOINT, I bet you’ve heard about the exhibit hall. With more than 100,000 square feet of exhibit space and more than 200 vendors, it’s the prime place to scope out what innovations you might benefit from in the coming months and years.

I am intensely proud of the tremendous professional development afforded by our speakers and breakouts. I am equally proud of our unparalleled exhibit offerings. In addition, I can’t emphasize enough how important and integral our networking and social events are to the continued development of our GEOINT community. The GEOINT Symposium is truly our family reunion, where relationships are renewed, maintained and created. These personal relationships constitute the underlying fabric of how we keep our nation, and the world, safe.

When I first came to the foundation, I was hesitant to heavily market and highlight all of the networking opportunities at GEOINT for fear that a jaded observer would only see a boondoggle. That said, I’ve come to appreciate the critical work accomplished at the receptions and evening networking functions. This important exchange of information takes place at Sunday night’s welcome party, Tuesday night’s GEOWalk Corporate Hospitality night and Wednesday’s closing reception, as well as at every break in our program and the daily receptions in the exhibit hall.

Lastly, I’d like to take a moment to say that I hope you are enjoying this new section of Geospatial Intelligence Forum. USGIF’s partnership with KMI Media Group to create the foundation’s very own publication is exciting for us, and we want it to be beneficial for you. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to share feedback—both positive and negative—we are here to serve you, the GEOINT community.