In a brief meeting with GITA's chief executive, Bob Samborski, he provided the rationale for the organization's announcement that they are repositioning themselves and focusing on "infrastructure." "We took a long look at who we were...and reviewed comments from members and exhibitors," said Samborski. What he found was that a majority of their members were focused on the physical infrastructure but also that there was a need to support the peripheral applications associated with critical infrastructure protection, like emergency response. Anything "infrastructure" was the way Samborski described his organization's basic focus. "It makes it a log easier to talk about when describing the conference focus," said Samborski, who will now call the annual GITA event by the name "Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference.

So, now the organization has a conference focused on Oil and Gas and another on infrastructure. I had been critical of GITA's positioning in the past. I think this is an excellent move to help tie together their membership and offer them a forum that addresses the needs of both public and private infrastructure organizations like public and private utilities. It allows them to filter content for their conference into a more cohesive event where even companies that have already chosen their GIS solution can focus attention at the interface of using technology for interoperability, public policy and economic development.