- November 11, 2020
- Posted by: EARSC
- Categories: EARSC News, European EO Industry
What role can GEO (and EARSC) play?
Thursday 19th of November 2020, 16:00-16:45 CET
The Earth Observation (EO) service industry is evolving extremely fast. The EARSC industry survey records steady annual growth of over 10%. New companies are appearing almost every day. Artificial Intelligence has succeeded cloud services as the latest major technological trend which is shaping the sector and new data streams are coming on-line as more and more EO satellites are launched. Platforms and on-line services are taking over from bespoke, consultancy, one-off projects.
Further, the sector is dominated by SMEs and start-ups which are bringing innovation and new ideas to the market. We are finding that many of these new companies are coming from outside the sector and adopting EO as a contributing data source to complement their existing offers. What will be their business model for the future?
Finally, governments currently represent 50% of the market for commercial EO services. Many governments are supporting their use of EO services through agencies and other public bodies which also seek to position themselves in the ecosystem – sometimes in competition with the industry which they purport to support. How can this be organised to the benefit of both public and private actors?
In the face of these challenges, how might the sector evolve?
EARSC has several projects e.g PARSEC, FIRE, e-shape, ConnectEO aimed at helping the new companies to develop and grow. But what does this mean in the face of giants such as Google, Amazon and other IT players? How can a young, entrepreneurial company navigate the maelstrom of this ecosystem? The opportunities seem to be enormous – but then so are the challenges.
Joining our host, Geoff SAWYER, EARSC’s Strategic Advisor and former Secretary General to discuss this strategic picture will be Steven Ramage. Steven is known to many in the sector for his work as Head of External Relations at GEO – the Group on Earth Observations. GEO has 112 countries as members and even more participating organisations (effectively partners) and has just held its latest annual meeting organised as a virtual event including an industry track. GEO seeks to encourage industry engagement so the question is, how can GEO help companies grow in this market? What can EARSC and GEO do together to achieve our respective goals? What might this mean for the sector and what might it look like in 5 years’ time?
In this EOcafe the following questions will be discussed :
- What are the key challenges for the sector today?
- How might these shape the sector in the next 5 years?
- What can GEO do to help the industry become better organised?
- In what way can the GEO work-programme be a tool to help bridge the public-private divide?
- How can GEO help develop a public market for EO services?
Registration: This webinar is open to ALL but priority will be given to EARSC members. Registration is free but compulsory. Please click on the following link to register by the 19th of November at 11:00 (CET).
Please note this is a virtual event! The details will be sent on Thursday 19th of November by noon.
EOcafe is part of a series of EARSC meetings that offer timely, relevant, and practical information on a broad variety of topics related to the EO sector. Join us every two weeks to discuss and network while enjoying a cup of coffee with friends.
SAVE THE DATES for the next EOcafe:
Thursday, 3rd of December, at 16:00-16:45 CET
Leveraging EO services to help countries monitoring SDGs
The industry contribution
IMPORTANT NOTES !!!
• The use of a video camera is not mandatory but encouraged to facilitate better interaction among the attendees and the guest speaker(s).
• The EOcafe will stay open after 16:45 in case our guests want to continue the discussion.
If you have any questions or you want to know more about the EOcafes please contact Natassa (Natassa.antoniou@earsc.org).
