Ms. Stefania Prestigiacomo (born 1966) has Science degree in public administration and entrepreneur. She was elected for the first time in parliament in 1994. She belongs to the parliamentary group: Popolo della Libertà. She is a member of Parliamentary Committees: VIII Commission (Environment, Land and Public Works) and X Commission (Business Production, Trade and Tourism). Prime Minister Berlusconi chose her as minister for Equal Opportunity, a position she held until 2006 with the end of the Berlusconi Government  III. She was one of the youngest ministers in the history of the Republic. She has served in the IV Berlusconi Government as the Minister for the Environment, Land and Sea from 2008 until November 2011.

Governments, international organizations and research institutions worldwide have set to work to improve disaster management in all its phases: mitigation, preparedness, relief and response, and recovery and reconstruction. Many governments have put the formation of a hazard-resistant and disaster coping society on their political agenda as an
important factor of sustainable economic development and better quality of civil life. In this respect, the awareness of new geospatial technologies and their successful utilization in disaster management is becoming crucial. These technologies are emerging very fast Meteorological and earth observation satellites, communication satellites and satellite-based navigation and positioning systems may help to improve prediction and monitoring of potential hazards, risk mitigation and disaster management, contributing in turn to reduce losses of life and property. Global navigation satellites and earth observation satellites have already demonstrated their flexibility in providing data for a broad range of applications: weather forecasting, vehicle tracking, disaster alerting, forest fire and flood monitoring, oil spill detection, desertification monitoring, and crop and forestry damage assessment. Monitoring and management of recent natural disasters have greatly benefited from satellite imagery, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, floods (Austria, Romania, Switzerland, and Germany in 2005), hurricanes (USA in 2005), forest fires (Portugal, France, Greece, Australia in 2005, 2008), earthquakes (Pakistan in 2005, Indonesia in 2006, Haiti 2010) and lastly in Japan and Turkey.
The presenter will try to demonstrate how Space Technology (Geoinformation Technology) can be efficiently integrated into disaster management, encompassing data collection (remote sensing, sensor networks, and mobile systems), data processing, and production of maps, which are further integrated, analyzed and visualized in GIS/Web-GIS.

Prof. Orhan Altan studied at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Istanbul Technical University 1965–1970 and graduated as Dipl.- Ing in Civil Engineering.
Since 1988 he has been a Full Professor at the Istanbul Technical University.
He is member of the American and German Societies for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, and several national and international societies.
He is member of the UN expert group of the ad-hoc Committee of the UN Entity, SPIDER (Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergence Response) and chair of the JB GIS ad hoc Committee on Risk and Disaster Management.
He is also Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics and in September 2011 he is elected to the Executive Board of the ICSU (International Council for Science).
He was the Congress Director of the ISPRS Congress in 2004 in Istanbul, Secretary General of ISPRS 2004–2008. and the President of ISPRS for the period 2008–2012.
He has published more than 160 papers in Turkish, German and English in Domestic and International Journals. He is editor or coeditor of more than 16 International Books.

Eng. Franco Maggio is the Director of the Central Department of Cadastre and Cartography of the Italian Land Agency. He has a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of the “Studi of Genova” in 1978.
Ing. Maggio is responsible for providing rules and procedures for cadastral and cartographic services and coordinating their implementation at the regional offices, ensuring integration and enhancement of databases of land and real estate. He is also responsible for the management of relationships with local authorities.

Alexander Müller is since 2006 the Assistant Director-General of the Natural Resources Management and Environment Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy. From 2008 to 2011 he was the Chair, United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN).
From 2001 to 2005 he was the State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture, Berlin, Germany and from 1995 to 2001 a Member of Parliament, Hesse, Germany; Chairman of the Caucus of the Green Party; Member of the Committee of Environmental Affairs, of the Finance Committee and of the Committee for New Media, Wiesbaden, Germany.
1992–1995: State Secretary, Hessian Ministry of Youth, Family and Health Affairs, Wiesbaden, Germany.
His education background is Master of Social Sciences (Sociology, Political Sciences) at Philipps-Universität in Marburg, Germany,1977–1985.

Energy means power and wealth. The fossil energy resources are becoming scarce. We are facing a growing energy demand and declining production that leads to a problematic energy situation certainly keeping in mind that 90% of global energy demand is covered by non-renewable energy.
How to respond to this challenge? Our society needs to slim down energetically. Sustainable behavior means for a European to cut by two thirds the current total primary energy and step by step to replace fossil fuels with alternative energy. The first major sector of society is to transform the building industry, which in Europe is responsible for 40% of the consumed energy. Building means trust in the future, that still is not known in detail. Precisely for this reason we have to choose energy efficient buildings, comfort and sustainability.

Norbert Lantschner is Past Director at the Clima Haus in Bolzano since 2006. He is scientific member of “KlimaHaus Master” at the Free University of Bolzano (2000–2001) and has been the President of the “Dachverband für Natur- und Umweltschutz“ South Tyrol 1992–2006. He has also worked as the Head of the office for Air and Noise of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano in 1972 and in 1977 joined the Public Service of South Tyrol –office for “Naturhaushalt” (Province department of ecology). He is the creator of the “KlimaHaus/CasaClima” project and the “KlimaHaus/CasaClima” protocol. Under his supervision over 2000 energy saving buildings (Clima Haus standard) were certificated all over Italy. He is an internationally known speaker and consultant. He presented Clima Haus at the UN Climate Change Conference in Montreal (2005) and at numerous conferences in Italy, Austria and Germany. The KlimaHaus/CasaClima label has been nominated for the Sustainable Energy Europe Award 2009. He has been a lecturer at the “La Sapienza” University at Rome, the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano, University of Camerino and LUMSA University, Rome.

The presentation will address the increase of the political awareness for precise, actual and 3D digital geoinformation (EU INSPIRE directive for creating a common geodata infrastructure for all action fields of European policy making, especially facing the environmental change).
Geodesy, geoinformation and land management play an important role in all key sociopolitical issues such as global change, climate policy, energy supply, disaster prevention, inner security, demographic change, e-government or modernisation of the state as well as data protection and data security.
The presentation further discussed the fundamental role of a connected geo-community – shaping networks between politics, government, administration, private economy, industry, science, research and education.
Pro-active communication has a crucial role in contribution of the surveying profession in direct connection to societal megatrends and changes as a promotion and image strategy.
The presentation will further address the new orientation for surveyors in the field of geodesy, geoinformation and land management in Germany – DVW´s integrative role as a platform and stakeholder for the entire surveyor`s community (INTERGEO, young blood initiatives, political lobbyism, membership policy, organization, education and training, networking, international engagement, technical progress).

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl-Friedrich Thöne is the President of the DVW – German Association for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management. He has a Doctorate (PhD) in Engineer Sciences (Dr-Ing.) in 1994 at the Technical University of Berlin.
Since 1998 he has been Director-General for the Development of Rural Spaces and Forestry, Thuringian Ministry for Agriculture, Nature Conservation and Environment in Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany.
He is an Honorary Professor at the Technical University of Dresden for International Land Policy and Land Management.
He has worked on diverse on-the-job consultancies mainly for the German Development Cooperation Agency (gtz) in Portugal, the Baltic states, Indonesia, Taiwan, Russia, Eastern Europe and Cambodia –land policy, good governance, land management, land administration, valuation, professional education.

Mr. Mario Resca (born 1945) is the General Director for the Development for Cultural Heritage in the Cultural Heritage Ministry since 2009. From 2011 he has also been the President of the Italian Convention Bureau and from 2010 Special Administrator of Great Brera, Pinacoteca di Breva and since 2008 Advisor to Sandro Bondi, Minister for Cultural Heritage. He has a degree in economics from Bocconi University, Milan (1969). He has granted Award Cavaliere del Lavoro of the Italian Republic in 2002.

Dr. Fabio Remondino has PhD in photogrammetry from IGP – ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 2006 and has been in Post doctoral research at SOI Unit at FBK Trento, Italy 2007–2010 and since 2010 he has been the Head of 3DOM Research Unit at FBK Trento in Italy.
His research areas cover: photogrammetry, laser scanning, 3D modelling, image processing and remote sensing.
He is Chairman of ISPRS WGV/4 “Image- and range-based 3D modeling” and ISPRS Society Delegate for CIPA 2008–2012. In 2004–2008 he was co-chair of ISPRS WGV/4 “Virtual Reality and Computer Animation”.
He has been popular invited speaker at international conferences in Italy, China, Germany, USA and Norway especially on 3D modelling of cultural objects
He has several awards for best articles at international conferences 2002–2008.

Mr. See Lian Ong KMN, BSc (Hons), PPISM, FISM, FRICS, ICECA is RICS President 2011–2012.
See Lian Ong was inaugurated as the 130th President of RICS in July 2011. He is the first non-British President in the 143 year history of RICS.
He has also served as Chair of RICS Asia Board for over 5 years (July 2005 – November 2010).
See Lian has an illustrious career spanning more than 38 years in both the public and private sectors of the construction industry. He has recently retired as Executive Director / Partner of Davis Langdon & Seah (Malaysia) Pte. Ltd. and Managing Director of DLS Management (Malaysia) Pte. Ltd.
He is Past Chairman of the Pacific Association of Quantity Surveyors, PAQS (2003–2005) and Past President of the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia, ISM (2003–2004). He is a Fellow member of the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (ISM), a Registered Quantity Surveyor with the Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia and an Accredited Mediator with the Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB).
See Lian is a much sought after speaker and he has presented numerous papers at various international conferences. In recognition of his vast contributions to the profession and the property and construction industry, he was awarded the KMN (2003), PAQS Medal (2007), “Malaysian Surveyor of the Year” Award (2008) and ICEC Award of Appreciation (2008