Wednesday, June 4, 2014
During June 2-4, 2014, SWF participated in the International Astronautical Federation’s (IAF)
Global Space Application Conference (GLAC) co-organized and hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in Paris, France. The meeting sought to
bring together the global satellite-based services community to present results, exchange ideas, debate roadmaps, and discuss future opportunities provided by satellite-based applications.
Among the focal points of the conference were examining solutions to obstacles limiting access to services, identifying best practices in capacity-building efforts, as discussing requirements for knowledge management. Given the linkages with SWF's
Human and Environmental Security focus area, SWF had a strong role in these discussions.
SWF Project Manager Laura Delgado López gave a poster presentation on the role of public awareness as a potential barrier to greater access and utilization of space applications during a session entitled “Solutions for barriers to access to application services, requirements for capacity building and knowledge management.” (Please see her
publications to view the poster.)
Dr. Ray Williamson, SWF Senior Advisor, participated in the session’s opening panel to discuss the lessons learned from two recent disaster management capacity-building workshops SWF has co-sponsored, the highlights of which he also included in a poster presentation. Dr. Williamson joined a distinguished panel of experts that included: Ms. Barbara Ryan, Secretariat Director of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), Mr. Yashushi Horikawa, President of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), Dr. Sandile Malinga, CEO of the South African Space Agency (SANSA), and Mr. Mark Noort, Director of HPC International. Thanks to a collaboration with the IAF Young Professionals Committee, the session was streamed in a Virtual Forum, which allowed over 30 participants from around the world to watch the presentations and ask questions.
SWF Executive Director Dr. Michael Simpson also attended the conference. SWF Advisory Committee member Gérard Brachet served as co-chair of the GLAC Program Committee.
A highlight video of the conference is available here.
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