Reston, VA  - The MAPPS Board of Directors has announced the association's 2009 conference dates and locations. Highlighting the conference schedule are the annual winter and summer membership conferences along with a joint specialty conference with the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).

"MAPPS is very excited to announce the locations for our 2009 conferences, including continuing our partnership with ASPRS," said Marvin Miller, CP, PLS, PPS, MAPPS President (Aero-Metric, Inc., Maple Grove, MN). "With uncertainty in the economy, this is a time for principals, owners, partners and senior executive professionals to focus on partnerships, networking and continuing education in order to leverage business development opportunities. These are the benefits MAPPS provides at its conferences."

The year will begin with the MAPPS winter conference January 20-24 at the Marriott Frenchmen's Reef in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. This will be the second time the association will host its winter meeting at the Frenchmen's Reef. The program will include sessions on sensors, a remote sensing market forecast, parcel mapping and a discussion on the current economic environment. The keynote address by Michael Jones, Chief Technologist of Google Earth, will focus on the future trends in the geospatial market and the direction the community is currently headed. This is a continuation of perspectives presented at the MAPPS winter meeting in Palm Springs, CA by Jack Dangermond, President, ESRI (Redlands, CA) and the summer meeting in Sun Valley, ID by Alex Wiechert, Managing Director, Microsoft Vexcel Imaging (Graz, Austria).

MAPPS will return to Washington, DC to meet with agency representatives and walk the halls of the U.S. Capitol, to visit with members of Congress, March 17 and 18 during the annual Federal Programs Conference. The meeting will focus on the partnerships MAPPS has with federal agencies engaged in geospatial work. The highlight of the conference is the time MAPPS members spend on Capitol Hill with their members of Congress advocating legislation and policies impacting the geospatial marketplace. The summer conference will be held June 25-29 at the Ocean Edge Resort & Club on Cape Cod in Brewster, Massachusetts. This will be the second time the association has held a summer conference on the Cape, the last being 1992 in Hyannis, MA.

On November 14-19 MAPPS will partner for the sixth time with ASPRS for a joint specialty conference on "Digital Mapping: From Elevation to Information," at the Crowne Plaza Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. This conference seeks to bring geospatial information professionals together for their mutual benefit and an exchange of ideas. Professionals are able to take advantage of both organizations' combined experience to apply the latest and best technology to terrain database generation and application.

"MAPPS conferences are known throughout the geospatial community as a unique experience. The association has learned that there is an importance to education, but also to simulate networking not only at a professional level but at personal and business levels," said John Palatiello, MAPPS Executive Director. "MAPPS meetings give principals and senior executives in member firms the ability to learn about advances in the profession while fostering business partnerships."

Updated agendas and hotel information for all conferences can be found on the "Events" page of the MAPPS website, www.mapps.org.